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THE \, 



OETICAL W#SikS 



OF 



OMAS GRAY, 



^ ^^ WITH A MEMOIR. 






BOSTON : 
JAMES R. OSGOOD & COMPANY, 

(liATE TICKNOK & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.) 
187I. 



) 



^s^' 






By Transfer 

MAR 15 1917 



/ 

# 






TO 

SAM-UEL ROGERS, ESQ. 

THIS EDITION OF 

GRAY 

IS INSCRIBED 

"WITH FEELINGS OP RESPECT AND ESTEEM 

BT THE EDITOB. 



SONNET. 



A LONELY Man he was, from whom these lays 
Flowed in his cloister'd musings : He in scorn 
Held them, the mifeeling multitude, who bom 
For deeds of nobler purpose, their ripe days 
Waste amidst fraudful industry, to raise 
Inglorious wealth. — But He, life's studious mom 
Gave to the Muse, so best might he adorn 
His thoughtfiil brow with never-dying bays. 
And well the Muse repaid him. She hath given 
An unsubstantial world of richer fee ; 
High thoughts, unchanging visions, that the leaven 
Of earth partake not ; — Rich then must he be, 
Who of this cloudless world, this mortal heaven, 
Possesseth in his right the Sovereignty. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Memoir op (^rat, by the Rev. J. Mitford ... * i 

Appendix to the Memoir • xoiii 

POEMS. 

Ode. On the Spring ^ . 1 

Ode. On the Death of a favourite Cat, drowned in a Tub 

of Gold Fishes 6 

Ode. On a Distant Prospect of Eton College .... 10 

Hymn to Adversity 17 

The Progress of Poesy . 22 

The Bard 38 

Ode for Music 61 

The Fatal Sisters 70 

The Vegtam's Kivitha; or, the Descent of Odin ... 75 

The Triumphs of Owen ... 84 

The Death of Hoel 87 

Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West . . . . 90 

Epitaph on Mrs. Jane Gierke 91 

Epitaph on Sir William Williams . 93 

Elegy written in a Country Churchyard ..... 94 

A Long Story Ill 

POSTHUMOUS POEMS AND FRAGMENTS. 

Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude .... 120 

Translation of a Passage from Statins 126 

The Fragment of a Tragedy, on the Subject of the Death 

of Agrippina 128 

Hymn to Ignorance 140 

The Alliance of Education and Government .... 143 

Stanzas to Mr. Bentley 153 

Sketch of his own Character ... 155 

Amatory Lines 156 

Song 157 

Tophet. An Epigram .... 159 

Impromptu, on the Seat of a deceased Nobleman . 161 

The Candidate 163 



Vm CONTENTS. 



EXTRACTS. 

Fag& 

Propertius, Lib. iii. Eleg. v ... 165 

Propertius, Lib. ii. Eleg. i 167 

Tasso Gerus. Lib. cant. xiy. .... .... 170 



POEMATA. 

Hymeneal on the Marriage of His Royal Highness the 

Prince of Wales 173 

Luna Habitabilis 177 

Sapphic Ode: To Mr. West 183 

Alcaic Fragment . . 187 

Latia Lines, addressed to Mr. West, from Genoa . . . 188 
Elegiac Verses, occasioned by the sight of the Plains 

where the Battle of Trebia was fought 188 

Carmen ad C. Favonium Zephyrinum 189 

Fragment of a Latin Poem on the Gaurus 192 

A Farewell to Florence 196 

Imitation of an Italian Sonnet of Signior Abbate Buon- 

delmonte 197 

Alcaic Ode 198 

Part of an Heroic Epistle from Sophonisba to Masinissa 200 

De Prineipiis Cogitandi, Liber Primus 204 

Liber Quartus 216 

Greek Epigram 218 

EXTRACTS. 

Petrarca, Part I. Sonetto 170 219 

From the Anthologia Greeca : 

In Bacchse Furentis Statuam 220 

In Alexandrum, save effictum 220 

In Medeae Imaginem, Nobile Timomachi Opus . . 220 

In Niobes Statuam ............ 221 

A Nymph oflfering a Statue of herself to Venus . . 221 

In Amorem Dormientem 221 

From a Fragment of Plato 222 

In Fontem Aquae Calidte 222 

** Irrepsisse suas murem," &c 222 

«* Hane tibi Ruflnus mittit," &c 223 

Ad Amorem . . 223 




THE LIFP: of THOMAS GRAY. 



BY JOHN MITFORD. 



Thomas Gray, the subject of the present narrative, 
was the fifth child of Mr. Philip Gray, a respect- 
able citizen and money-scrivener in London. His 
grandfather was also a considerable merchant in 
that place. The maiden name of his mother was 
Dorothy Antrobus. Thomas was born in Cornhill, 
the 26th of December, 1716; and was the only one 
of twelve children who survived. The rest died in 
their infancy, from suffocation, produced by a full- 
ness of blood ; and he owed his life to a memorable 
instance of the love and courage of his mother, who 
removed the paroxysm, which attacked him, by 
oj)ening a vein with her own hand : an instance of 
affection that seems to have been most tenderly 
preserved by him through his after life, re])aid 
with care and attention, and remembered when 
the object of his filial solicitudes could no longer 
claim them. Mason informs us, " that Gray sel- 
dom mentioned his mother without a sigh." 

He was educated at Eton, under the protection 
of Mr. Antrobus, his maternal uncle, who was at 



11 LiFi: OF g::ay. 

that time assistant to Dr. Georcre, and also a fel- 
low of Pembroke College, at Cambridge, where 
Gray was admitted as a pensioner in 1734, in his 
nineteenth year. I should be unwilling to pass 
over this period of his life, without mentioning that 
while at Eton, as well as at Cambridge, he de- 
pended for his entire support on the affection and 
firmness of his mother ; who, when his father had 
refused all assistance, cheerfully maintained him 
on the scanty produce of her separate industry. 
At Eton his friendship with Horace Walpole, and 
more particularly with Richard -West,* com- 
menced. In him he met with one, who, from the 
goodness of his heart, the sincerity of his friend- 
ship, and the excellent cultivation of his mind, was 
worthy of his warmest attachment. The purity of 
taste, indeed, as well as the proficiency in litera- 
ture which the letters of West display, were re- 

* Kichard West was the son. of the right honourable 
Richard West, lord chancellor of Ireland; who died in 1727 
or 1728, aged 36; and his grandfather, by the mother's side, 
was Bishop Burnet. His father was the cDaternal uncle of 
Glover the poet, and is supposed to be the author of a tragedy 
called ' Hecuba,' published in 1726. Mason says that, when 
at school. West's genius was thought to be more brilliant than 
his friend's. A portrait of the father is in the hall of tho 
Inner Temple, given by Richard Glover. He was appointed 
Lord Chancellor in the reign of George the First, in 1725. He 
wrote on Treasons and Bills of Attainder, also on the Manner 
of Creating Peers. See this last tract highly praised in Quar- 
terly Review, No. Ixxxiv. p. 303. See King's poem, The 
Toast, p. 117. 



LIFE OF Gil AY. Ul 

markuble at his age ; and his studious and pensive 
habits of mind, his uncertain health, and his early 
and untimely death, have all contributed to throw 
" a melancholy grace" over the short and inter- 
esting narrative of his life. With him, for the 
period of eight years. Gray enjoyed what the mo- 
ralist calls " the most virtuous as well as the hap- 
piest of all attachments — the wise security of 
friendship : ' Par studiis, aevique modis.' " Lat- 
terly, when West's health was declining, and his 
prospects in life seemed clouded and uncertain, 
Gray's friendship was affectionate and anxious, 
and only terminated by the early death of his 
friend in his twenty-sixth year. 

When Gray removed to Peter House, Horace 
Walpole* went to King's College in the same uni- 
versity, and West to Christ Church at Oxford. 
From this period the life of Gray is conducted by 
his friend and biographer Mr. Mason, through the 

* In H. Walpole's Works are some letters between West 
and Walpole at College (vol. iv. p. 411). The intimacy be- 
t\^een Gray, Walpole, West, and Asheton, was called the 
quadruple alliance; and they passed by the names of Tydeus, 
Orojimades, Almanzor, and Plato. Thomas Asheton was after- 
wards fellow of Eton College, rector of St. Botolph, Bishops- 
gate Street, and preacher to the Society of Lincoln's Inn. Ho 
wrote an answer to a work of Dr. Conyers Middleton. Wal- 
pole addressed a poetical epistle from Florence to him. See 
Gray's Letters; and Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 386. Ashe- 
ton died in 1775. His niece of the same name married Dr. 
William Cleaver, hisiiop of St. Asaph. See an account of him 
in Sir Egertou jrJrydges's Kestituta, vol. iv. i). 249 



IV LJFE OF GRAY. 

mediam of his Letters ; * concerning which it may 
be said, that from the humour, the tdegance, and 
the classical taste displayed in them ; from the 
alternate mixture of serious argument, animated 
description, just criticism, and playful expression; 
notwithstanding the incidents of his life were pe- 
culiarly few in number, nor any of them remark- 
able,, yet a more interesting publication of the 
kind never appeared in English literature. 

Gray's Letters commence, as I have said, from 
the time when he left Eton for Cambridge ; but 
from them it is difficult to trace the line of study 
which he pursued at College. His letters treat 
chiefly of his poetry, and other private pursuits ; 
and he seems to have withdrawn himself entirely 
from the severity of mathematical studies, and to 
have confined his inquiries to classical literature, 
to the acquisition of modern languages, to history, 
and other branches of what is called polite learn- 
ing. West describes himself and his friend as 
walking hand in hand, 

" Through many a llow'ry path and shelly grot. 
Where Learning hiU'd us m hev private maze." 

During Gray's residence at College, from 1734 
to September, 1738, liis poetical productions were 
— 'A Copy of Latin verses,' inserted in the ''Musce 

* Mason followed the plan of C. Middleton in his Life of 
Cieoro, and of Quirini in his Life of Cardinal Pole. See Pye'a 
Life of Pok-, p. 177. 



LIFE OF GRAY. V 

Etonenses ; ' another ' On the Marriage of the 
Prince of Wales ; ' and 'A Sapphic Ode to West.' 
A small part of his ' Translation from Statins/ Mr. 
Mason has given ; but has withheld a Latin Ver- 
sion of the ' Care Selve heate ' of the Pastor Fido, 
and an English translation of part of the fourteenth 
canto of Tasso's ' Gerusalemme Liberata^ which is 
inserted in the present edition. From September 
till the following March, Gray resided at his fa- 
ther's house ; but his correspondence with West, 
who was then with his mother at Epsom, his bio- 
grapher has thought it unnecessary to insert. 

At the request of Horace Walpole, Gray ac- 
companied him in his travels through France and 
Italy, and deferred his intended study of the law. 
From letters to his friend West, and to his own 
family, we have an account of his pursuits while 
abroad. He seems to have been, as we might have 
expected, *a very studious and diligent traveller. 
His attention was directed to ail the works of art 
that were curious and instructive. Architecture 
both of Gothic and Grecian origin, painting, and 
music, were all studied by him. He appears to have 
applied diligently to the language ; nor did the 
manners and customs of the inhabitants escape his 
attention. Like Addison, he compared with the 
descriptions of ancient authors the modern appear- 
ance of the countries through which hb passed. 
There are, indeed, few gratifications more exquisite 
than those which we experience in being able to 



VI LIFE OF GRAY. 

identify tlie scenes, and realize the descriptions, 
which have been long consecrated in the mind by 
genius and by virtue ; which have supplied the 
fancy with its earliest images, and are connected 
in the memory with its most lasting associations. 
In such moments as these, we appear to be able 
suddenly to arrest the progress and lessen the 
devastations of time. We hardly contemplate 
with regret the ages that have passed in silence 
and oblivion ; and we behold, for the first time, 
the fading and faint descriptions of language, 
stamped with the fresh impressions of reality and 
truth. The letters which Gray wrote from Italy 
were not intended for publication, and do not con- 
tain a regular account of the observations which 
he made : but are rather detached and entertain- 
ing descriptions, intended for the amusement of his 
friends at home. Every thing which he thought 
of importance was committed to his journal. " He 
catalogued," says Mr. Mason, " and made occa- 
sional short remarks on the pictures which he saw. 
He wrote a minute description of every thing 
which he saw in his tour from Rome to Naples ; 
as also of the environs of Rome, Florence, &c 
They abound with many uncommon remarks, 
and pertinent classical quotations.' 

The route chosen by the travellers was one usu- 
ally taken : — from Paris, through Rheims (where 
they stayed three months, principally to accustom 
themselves to the French language) to Lyons, 



LIFE OF GRAY. Vll 

whence they took a short excursion to Geneva, 
over the mountains of Savoy ; and by Turin, Ge- 
noa, and Bologna to Florence. There they passed 
the winter in the company of Mr. Horace Mann, 
the envoy at that court.* In March, 1740, Clement 
the Twelfth, then Pope, died; and they hastened 
their journey to Rome, in the hope of seeing the 
installation of his successor.! That Gray would 
have wished to have extended his travels, and en- 
larged his prospect beyond these narrow limits, if 
he had possessed the power, we know from his 
subsequent advice to a friend who was commenc- 
ing his travels : " Tritum viatorum compitum cal- 
ca, et, cum poteris, desere." And the following 
passage sketches the outline of an Italian tour, 
which, I believe, few of our travellers have ever 
completed : " I conclude, when the winter is over, 
and you have seen Rome and Naples, you will 
strike out of the beaten path of English travellers, 
:ip.d see a little of the country. Throw yourselves 
into the bosom of the Apennine ; survey the horrid 
lake of Amsanctus ; catch the breezes on the coast 
of Taranto and Salerno ; expatiate to the very toe 
of the continent ; perhaps strike over the faro of 
Messina; and having measured the gigantic co- 

* See Walpole's Works, vol. iv. p. 423. Sir Horace Mann 
died in 1786 at Florence, where he had redded forty-six years 
OS his Britannic Majesty's minister, at the Court of the Grand 
Duke. 

t Ibid. p. 440. 



Vm LIFE or GRAY. 

lumns of Girgenti and the tremendous cavern of 
Syracusa, refresh yourselves amidst the fragrant 
vale of Enna. — Oh ! die hel riposo ! " 

In May, after a visit to the Frascati and the 
Cascades of Tivoli, Gray sent his beautiful 'Alcaic 
Ode ' to West. In June he made a short excursion 
to Naples ; and was charmed with the scenery that 
presented itself in, that most delightful climate. 
He describes the large old fig-trees, the oranges 
in bloom, the myrtles in every hedge, and the 
vines hanging in festO':>ns from tree to tree. He 
must have been among the first English travel- 
lers who visited the remains of Herculaneum,* as 
it was discovered only the preceding year ; and 
he pointed out to his companion, the description 
in Statius that pictured tlie latent city : 

" Haec ego Chalcidicis ad te, Marcelle, sonabam 
litoribus, fractas ubi VeBbius egerit iras. 



* Some excavations were made in Herculaneum in 1709 
by tbe Prinoe D'Elbeuf : but thirty years elapsed after the 
orders given to the Prince to dig no farther, before any more 
notice was taken of them. In December, 1738, the King 
of the two Sicilies was at Portiei, and gave orders for a pro- 
secution of the subterraneous labours. There was an exca- 
vation in the time of the Romans; and another in 1689. In 
a letter from H. Walpole to Weat on this subject (see Wal- 
pole's Works, vol. iv. p. 448), dated Naples, June 14, 1740, 
is a passage which shows Mr. Mason's conjecture, that the 
travellers did not recognise the ancient town of Herculaneum 
by name, to be unfounded. H. Walpole calls it by that name 
ux his letter. 



LIFE OF GllXW IX 

JSmula Trinacriis volvens ineeadia fiammis. 
Mira fides ! credetne \'irum ventura propagt), 
Cum segetes iterum, cum jam haec deserta virebunt, 
Infra urbes, populoBque premi 1 " 

Statu Sylv. IV. iv. T8 * 

At Naples the travellers stayed ten days ; and 
Gray's next letter to his fallier, in which he talks 
of his return to England, is dated again from Flo- 
rence ; and whence he sent, soon after, his Poem 
on the ' Gaurus ' to West. He remained, however, 
at that place about eleven months ; and during this 
time commenced his Latin poem ' Zfe Principiis 
Gogitandi.^ He then set off with Walpole, on the 
24th of April, for Bologna and Reggio,t at the lat- 
ter of which towns an unfortunate difference took 
place between them, an-d tliey parted. The exact 
cause of this quarrel has been passed over by the 
delicacy of his biographer, because H. Walpole was 
alive when the Memoirs of Gray were written. The 
former, however, charged himself with the chief 
blame ; and lamented that he had not paid more 
attention and deference to Gray's superior judg- 

* See also Martial. Epig. Lib. iv. Ep. 43, ed. Delph. and 
the note by Stephens on Statii Sylv. v. 3. 205, p. 155. 

Jaraque et Acre pic Vesuvina incendia cantu 
Mens erat, &c. 

f Dr. Johnson has two slight mistakes in his 'Life of Grray."' 
He says that they quarrelled at Florence and parted, instead of 
Rcggio. He says also, that Gray began his poem ' De Prin- 
cipiis Cogitandi ' after his return : but it was commenced in tba 
winter of 1740, at Florence. 



X LIFE OF GKAY. 

ment and prudence. In the ' Walpoliana' (vol. i. 
p. 95, art. ex.) is the followmg passage : " The 
quarrel between Gray and me arose from his being 
too serious a companion. I had just broke loose 
from the restraint of the University, with as much 
money as I could spend ; and I was willing to in- 
dulge myself. Gray was for antiquities, &c. ; 
whilst I was for perpetual balls "^nd plays ; — the 
fault was mine." Perhaps the freedom of friend- 
ship spoke too openly to please : for in a letter from 
Walpole to Mr. Bentley, some years afterwards, he 
says : " I was accustomed to flattery enough when 
my father was minister : at his fall I lost it all at 
once : and since that I have lived with Mr. Chute, 
who is all vehemence ; with Mr. Fox, who is all 
disputation ; with Sir C. Williams, who has no time 
from flattery,. himself ; and with Gray, who does 
not hate to find fault with me." * Whatever was 
the cause of this quarrel, it must have been very 
serious, if the information is correct which is given 
in the manuscript of the Rev. W. Cole, a person 
who appears to have lived in terms of intimacy with 

* See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 334. In a letter frota 
Gray to Walpole in 1751, is a sentence which seems to point 
towards this quarrel: "It is a tenet with me, (he says) — a 
simple one, you will perhaps say, — that if ever two people 
who love one another come to breaking, it is for want of a 
timely eclaircissement, a full and precise one, without witnesses 
or mediators, and without reserving one disagreeable circum- 
Btance for the mind to brood upon in silence." See Walpole's 
Works, vol. v. p. 389. 



LIFE OF GRAY. S.1 

Gray during the latter part of his life. " When 
matters (he sajs) were made up between Gray and 
Walpole, and the latter asked Gray to Strawberry 
Hill, when he came, he without any ceremony told 
Walpole, that he came to wait on him as civility 
required, but by no means would he ever be there 
on the terms of his former friendship, which he had 
totally cancelled." Such is the account given by 
Mr. Cole, and which I suppose is worthy of credit : 
at any rate, it does not seem at all inconsistent with 
the independence and manly freedom which always 
accompanied the actions and opinions of Gray.* 

Having thus lost his companion, and, with the 
separation of friendship, all inducement to remain 
abroad. Gray went immediately to Venice, and re- 
turned through Padua and Milan, following almost 
the same road through France, which he had tra- 
velled before. If he sent anv letters to West on 
nis return,t it was not thought requisite to publish 
them : those to his father were only accounts of his 
health and safety. Though he returned to England 

* For a further elucidation of this subject, the reader ig 
referred to the second volume of the Aldine edition of Gray*s 
Works, p. 174—5, where I have stated what are the supposed 
causes of the quarrel ; and the terms of the reconciliation will 
be best learned, from the expressions which Gray uses in his 
letter to Mr. Wharton on this subject. 

f Some letters from Walpole to West, while the former was 
on his travels with Gray, are in Walpole 's Works, vol. iv. 
p. 419 — 463. There is one letter from Reggio, May 10th, but 
not mentioning any quarrel, nor even Gray by name. 



XU LIFE OF GRAY. 

as speedily and directly as he could, yet lie once 
diverged from his way, between Turin and Lyons, 
again to contemplate the wild and magnificent 
scenery that surrounded the Grande Chartreuse ; 
and in the Album of the Fathers he wrote his 
beautiful 'Ak-aic Ode,' which bears strong marks 
of proceeding from a mind deeply impi^essed with 
the solemnity of the situation ; where " every pre- 
cipice and cliff was pregnant with religion and 
poetry." * 

In two months after the return of Gray in 1741, 
his father died,t his constitution being worn out by 
repeated attacks of the gout; and Gray's filial duty 
was now solely directed to his mother. To the 
friend who condoled with Pope on his father's death, 
he answered in the pious language of Euryalus, — 
" Genitrix est mihi," — and Gray, in the like cir- 
cumstances, assuredly felt no less the pleasure that 
arose from contributing to preserve the life and hap- 
piness of a parent. "With a small fortune, which her 
husband's imprudence had materially impaired,! 
Mrs. Gray and a maiden sister retired to the house 

* See Letter XI. dated Turin, November 16, 1739. 

f Gray came to town about the 1st of September, 1741. 
His father died on the 6th of November following, at the ago 
of 65. Mason. ■ 

Mr. Philip Gray built a country house at Wanstead, at a 
very considerable expense, which was sold after his death at 
£2000 less than its original cost. It was purchased by Alder- 
man Ball, who was still resident in it in 1776. Isaac Reed. 



LlFK OF GilAY. Xill 

ot Mrs. Rogers,* another sister, at Stoke, near 
"Windsor : and Gray, thinking his fortune not suf- 
ficient to enable him to prosecute the study of the 
law, and yet unwilling to hurt the feelings of his 
mother, by appearing entirely to forsake his pro- 
fession, changed or pretended to change the line of 
study, and went to Cambridge to take his degree 
in civil law. That in his own mind, however, he 
had entirely given up all thoughts of his profes- 
sion, seems to ap|)ear from a letter to West: "Alas 
for one (he says) who has nothing to do but to 
amuse himself! I believe my amusements are as 
little amusing as most folks'; but no matter, it 
makes the hours pass, and is better than iv afmdt^ 

Kal ufj,ovaLa Karu^Luvau" 

" But the narrowness of his circumstances," says 
Mr. Mason, " was not the only thing that dis- 
tressed him at this period. He had, as we have 
seen, lost the friendship of Mr. Walpole abroad. 
He had also lost much time in his travels ; a loss 
which application could not easily retrieve, when 
so severe and laborious a study as that of the Com < 
mon Law was to be the object of it ; and he well 
knew that whatever improvement he miglii havr:^ 
made in this interval, either in taste or science, 
such improvement would stand hnn in little stead 
with regard to his present situation and exigencies. 

* Jlason describes Mrs. Uogois as the widov/ of a clergy- 
man, but Isaac Reed, in a JMS. note, has said that he was a 
gentleman of the law. 



XIV HFi: OF CjIKAI'. 

This was not all: his other friend, Mr. West, he 
found on his return opj)ressed by sickness and a 
load of family misfortunes. These the sympathiz- 
ing heart of Mr. Gray made his own. He did all 
in his power (for he was now with him in London) 
to soothe the sorrows of his friend, and try to alle- 
viate them by every office of the jjurest and most 
perfect affection : but his cares were vain. The 
distresses of Mr. West's mind had already too 
far affected a body from the first weak and deli- 
cate." 

West was indeed at this time rapidly declining 
in health, and had gone into Hertfordshire for the 
benefit of the air. To him Gray sent part of his 
Tragedy of ' Agrippina,' then commenced ; and 
which, Mr. Mason thinks, was suggested by a fa- 
vourable impression left on his mind from a repre- 
sentation of the Britannicus of Racine. His friend 
objected to the length of Agrippina's speech ; and 
the Fragment is now published, not exactly as 
Gray left it, but altered by Mr. Mason from the 
suggestions of West. The plan of this play seems 
to have been drawn after the model of the plays of 
Racine ; though it displays perhaps more spirit and 
genius than ever informed the works of that ele- 
gant and correct tragedian. Mr. Mason, in a let- 
ter to Dr. Beattie, mentions among the Poetry left 
by Gray, "the opening scene of a tragedy called 
Agrippina, with the first speech of the second, 
written much in Racine's manner, and with many 



LIFE OF GRAY. XV 

masterly strokes." * The language resembles 
rather that of Rowe or Addison, than of Shake- 
speare; though it is more highly wrought, and 
more closely compacted. If finished, it would, I 
think, have delighted the scholar in the closet ; 
but it is too descriptive to have pleased upon the 

stage. BuGTU^ovrat 6e o'l avayvuoTiKoi Kal irapa- 

8d?[,?Mfj,evot, 01 fxkv TcJv ypacpLKcJVf ev Tolg aydai arevol <j>alvoV' 
rai.f 

Gray now employed himself in the perusal of the 
ancient authors. He mentions that he was reading 
Thucydides, Theocritus, and Anacreon. He trans- 
lated some parts of Propertius with great elegance 
of language and versification, and selected for his 
Italian studies the poetry of Petrarch. He wrote 
an Heroic Epistle in Latin, in imitation of the man- 
ner of Ovid; and a Greek Epigram, which he 
communicated to West : to whom also in the sum- 
mer, when he retired to his family at Stoke, he sent 

* I have said that (liray kept an attentive eye upon Racine 
during the composition of lus tragedy; an assertion, I think, 
that the notes will serve to prove: but the learned Mr. Twi- 
ning, in his notes on Aristotle's Poetics, (p. 385, 4to.) says': 
" I have often wondered what it was that could attach Mr. 
Gray so strongly to a poet whose genius was so little analo- 
gous to his own. I must confess I cannot, even in the Dramatic 
Fragment given us by Mr. Mason, discover any other resem- 
blance to Racine, than in the length of the sp(ieches. The 
fault, indeed, is Racine's; its beauties are surely of a higher 
order," &c. 

f Aristotelis Rhetorica, lib. y. cap xii. 



X-Vi Lli^E OF UUaY. 

his ' Ode to Spring,' wliicli was written there, but 
which did not arrive in Hertfordshire till after 
the death of his beloved friend.* West died only 
twenty days after he had written the Letter to 
Gray, which concludes with " Vale, et vive paulis- 
per cum vivis." So little (says Mr. Mason) was 
the amiable youth then aware of the short time 
tbat he himself would be numbered amongst the 
living. 

I shall here insert a veiy correct and judicious 
criticism, on a censure made by Johnson of an 
expression in Gray's Ode to Spring, by the late 

* West was buried in the chancel of Hatfield church, be- 
neath a stone, Tvith the fullowi)ig epitapli: "Here lieth the 
body of Richard West, esq. only son of the right honourable 
Richard West, esq. lord chancellor of Ireland, who died the 
1st of June, 1742, in the '2ith year of his age." West's 
poems have never been fully collected. There is one, 'An 
Ode to Mary Magdalene,' in Walpcle's Works, vol. iv. p. 419: 
another in Dalrymple's Songs, p. 142. In the European Ma- 
gazine for January, 1798, p. 45, is a poem said to be written 
by him, called ' Damon to Pliilomel ; ' and a Copy of Verses ou 
his Death, supposed to be written by his uncle, Judge Burnet. 
In Walpole's "Woil:.-, vol. i. p. 204, is a well known Epigi-am 
which was written by West. ' Tii-c nnd Thomas Hearne,' which 
was printed by Mr. Walpole in a paper intended for the ' World,' 
but not sent, and v.-hicli is commonly attributed to Swift. It 
appears also, that part of the tragedy of Pausanias is extant in 
MS. See the editor's note in Walpcle's Works, vol. iv. p. 458; 
also his translation of Tibullus. See Mason's Gray, vol. i. p. 
22. The collection of his poems by Dr. Anderson, in the edition 
of the British Poets, is very incomplete: and Mr. Alexander 
Chalmers, in his subsequent edition, has omitted them entirely. 



LIFE OF GRAY. XVU 

Lord Grenville, a criticism which does credit to 
his Lordship's learning and taste * 

" ' There has of late arisen,' says Johnson, in his 
Life of Gray, ' a practice of giving to adjectives 
derived from substantives, the termination of par- 
ticiples : such as the cultured plain, the daisied 
bank ; but I was sorry to see in the lines of a 
scholar like Gray, the honied spring.' 

" A scholar, like Johnson, might have remem- 
bered that meUitus is used by Catullus, Cicero, 
and Horace, and that honied itself is found both 
in Shakspeare and in Milton. But to say nothing 
of the general principles of all language, how could 
the writer of an English Dictionary be ignorant 
that the ready conversion of our substantives into 
verbs, participles, and participial adjectives, is of 
the very essence of our own tongue, derived to it 
from its Saxon origin, and a main source of its 
energy and richness ? 

" 1st. Li the instances of verbs and participles, 
this is too obvious to be dwelt upon for a moment. 
Such verbs as to plough, to witness, to pity, to 
ornament, together with the participles regularly 
formed from them are among the commonest words 
iji our language. Shakspeare, in a ludicrous but 
expressive phrase, has converted >.^ v^en a proper 
name into a participle of this description : ' Pe- 
truchio,' he says, ' is kated.' — The epithet of 
a hectoring fellow is a more familiar instance of ^ 

* See Nugae Metricae, by Lord Grenville, privately printed. 
C 



XVIU LIFE OF GRAY. 

participle similarly formed, thougli strangely dis- 
torted in its use to express a meaning almost the 
oj)posite of its original. 

" 2ndly. These participles of verbs thus derived, 
like all other participles, when used to denote ha- 
hitual attributes, pass into adjectives. Winged, 
feathered, thatched, painted, and innumerable 
others are indiscriminately used in both these 
forms, according to the construction of the sen- 
tence, and its context. And the transition is so 
easy, that in many passages it may be doubted 
to which of these two jDarts of speech such words 
should properly be referred. 

" 3rdly. Between these participial adjectives, 
and those which Johnson condemns, there is the 
closest analogy. Both are derived from substan- 
tives ; and both have the termination of partici- 
ples. The latter, such words for instance, aa 
honiedy daisied, tapestried, slippered, and the like, 
differ from the others only in not being referable 
to any yet established verb ; but so little material 
is the difference, that there is hardly one of these 
cases, ui which the corresponding verb might not, 
if it were wanted, be formed and used, in strict 
conformity with the genius of our language. Su- 
gared is an epithet frequent in our ancient poetry, 
and its use was properly long anterior to that of 
the verb, of which it now appears to be a parti- 
ciple. But that verb has since been fully adopted 
into our language. We now sugar our cups, as 



LIFE or GUAY. XIX 

freely as our ancestors spiced and drugged them, 
and no reason can be assigned, why, if such were 
our practice, we might not also honey them, with 
equal propriety of speech. 

*' 4thly. On the same analogy we form another 
very numerous and very valuable class of adjec- 
tives, compound epithets, derived like the others, 
from substantives, and like them terminating as 
participles, but having prefixed to them the signifi- 
cation of some additional attribute. Such are in 
common speech, four-footed, open-hearted, short- 
sighted, good-natured, and the like. In poetry we 
trace them from the well-envyned franklin of Chau- 
cer, through the most brilliant pages of all his 
successors to the present hour. What reader of 
Shakspeare or Milton needs to be reminded of 
even-handed, high-flighted, and trump et-tongued, 
or of full- voiced, flowery-kirtled, and fiery- wheeled ? 
All these expressive and beautiful combinations, 
Johnson's canon would banish from our language. 

" His criticism therefore recoils on himself. The 
poet has followed the usage of his native tongue, 
and the example of its best masters. The gram- 
marian appears unacquainted both with its prac- 
tice and its principles. The censure serves only 
to betray the evil passions, which in a very 
powerful and well-intentioned, but very ill-regu- 
lated mind, the success of a contemporary had 
been permitted to excite. 

" The true spirit indeed of this criticism appears 



XX LIFE OF GSAY. 

witli no less force in what almost immediately fol- 
lows, where Johnson attempts to ridicule a passage 
which few other men have read without delight, 
Graj's beautiful invocation of the Thames, in the 
Ode on Eton College — ' Say, Father Thames,' 
&c. ' This is useless,' he says, ' and puerile.' Father 
Thames had no better means of 'knowing than 
himself.' He forgets his own address to the Nile 
in Rasselas, for a purpose so very similar ; and he 
expects his readers to forget one of "the most affect- 
ing passages in Yirgil. Father Thames might well 
know as much of the sports of boys as the ' great 
Father of Waters' knew of the discontents of men, 
or the Tiber himself of the obsequies of Marcellus." 

In the autumn of 1742, Gray composed the ode 
on * A distant Prospect of Eton College,' and the 
* Hymn to Adversity.' The ' Elegy in a Country 
Church-yard' was commenced. An affectionate 
Sonnet in English, and an Apostrophe which opens 
the fourth book of his poem ' De Principiis Gogi- 
tandi^ (his last composition, in Latin verse,) bear 
strong marks of the sorrow left on his mind from 
the death of West; and of the real affection with 
which he honoured the memory of his worth, and 
of his talents. 

Mr. Mason thinks that Gray did not finish this 
poem, on account of the unfavourable reception, or 
rather neglect, of the Anti-Lucretius * of the Car- 

* This poem had the honour of being corrected by Boileau, 
and altered by Louis the XlVth. The author was so long 



LIFE OF GRAY. XXI 

dinal Melchior de Polignac ; a poem wLich had 
been long expected, and appeared about that time. 
The failure, however, of M. de Polignac's poem 
maj be attributed partly to its length, (for it con- 
tains above thirteen thousand verses,) and to a 
want of sufficient variety and digression in the 
composition. The versification is not always fin- 
ished and compact, and the language has lost 
much of its elegance in the endeavour to accom- 
modate it with precision to the subject. 

Gray's residence at Cambridge was now conti- 
nued, not from any partiality to the place where he 
received his education, but partly from the scanti- 
ness of his income, and in a great measure, no 
doubt, for the convenience which its libraries af- 
forded.* Original composition he almost entirely 

employed on it, and recited it so often, that many parts were 
stolen, and inserted in the works of other authors. Le Clero 
got a fragment by heart, and published it in one of his literary 
journals. The cardinal died while his work was unfinished, 
and before he could add two more books to it against the Deists. 
See Anecdotes par Grimm, vol. i. p. 455. The line written 
under Franklin's picture, "Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptmmque 
tyrannis " — is an imitation of one in the Anti-Lucretius, " Eri- 
puitque Jovi fulmen, Phoeboque sagittas." 

* In a note to the Spital iSermon, p. 117, Dr. Parr says: 
" After the opportunities which Mr. Gray enjoyed, and of which 
he doubtless had availed himself, for observing the state of 
literature and the characters of literary men upon the Conti- 
nent, he did not merely visit the University, but fixed his 
chief residence there. And of a choice to which he adhered 
so steadily and so long, the' scantiness of his fortune, the love 
af books, and the eas3'^ access he had t;0 them in many libraries.. 



XXU LIFE OF GRAY. 

neglected ; but his time was so assiduously occu- 
pied in a regular and studious perusal of the best 
Greek authors, that in six years he had read all 
the writers of eminence in that language, digest- 
ing and arranging their contents, remarking their 
peculiarities, and noting their corrupt and difficult 
passages with great accuracy and diligence. In 
the winter of 1742, he was admitted a bachelor 
of civil law ; and a short recreation of his studies 
appears in a ' Fragment of an Address to Igno- 
rance,' which contains a satire on the University 
where he resided,* whose system of education he 
always disliked and ridiculed, and against which 
he used to speak so openly, as to create many 
enemies. It is plain, from his Letters, that he 

will hardly be considered sis the sole motives.*' Dr. Parr, 
however, does not assign any other motives that influenced 
Gray, in his choice of the University for a residence. 
Nee tu credideris urbanse commoda vitas 
Quserere Nasonem, quserit et ilia tarn en. 

Ov. Ep. ex Pont. 1. 8. 29. 
* In p. 117 of the Spital Sermon, Dr. Parr says: "At that 
vt/ty time in which Mr. Gray spoke so contemptuously of Cam- 
bridge, that very University abounded m men of erudition and 
science, with whom the first scholars would not have disdained 
to converse: and who shall convict me of exaggeration, when 
I bring forward the names of Bentley, Davies, Asheton — of 
Jesus: Provost Snape, Middleton, Tunstall the public orator, 
Baker — of St. John's : Edmund Law, John Taylor, Thomas 
Johnson, Waterland, Whaley (afterwards regius professor of 
divinity). Smith (the nephew of Cotes), afterwards master of 
Trinity, Roger Long, Colson, the correspondent of Sir Isaac 
Newton and Professor Saunderson 1 " 



LIFE OF GliAY XXlll 

thought the attention and time bestowed there on 
mathematical and metaphysical pursuits, would 
have been more profitably spent in classical stu- 
dies. There is some resemblance in the style of 
this Fragment to part of Pope's Dunciad ; the 
fourth book of which had appeared but a year 
or two before : and Gray, I should think, had 
that poem in his mind when he wrote these lines, 
to ridicule what he calls " that ineffable Octo- 
grammaton, the power of laziness." 

In 1744 the difference between Walpole and 
Gray was adjusted by the interference of a lady 
who wished well to both parties. The lapse of 
three years had probably been sufficient, in some 
degree, to soften down, though not entirely oblite- 
rate, the remembrance of supposed injuries on 
either side ; natural kindness of temper had reas- 
sumed its place, and we find their correspondence 
again proceeding on friendly and familiar terms. 
About this time Gray became acquainted with Mr. 
Mason, then a scholar of St. John's College, whose 
poetical talents he had noticed ; and some of whose 
poems he revised at the request of a friend. He 
maintained a correspondence wi4h his intimate 
and respectable friend, Dr. Wharton, of Durham ; 
and he seems to have lived on terms of familiarity 
with the celebrated Dr. Middleton,* whose loss 



* Dr. Middleton died the 28th of July, 1750, in the sixty- 
seventh year of his age, at Hildcrsham, in Cambridgeshire. 



XXIV LIFE OF GRAY. 

he afterwards laments. " I find a friend (he says) 
;•() uncommon a thing, that I cannot help regret- 
ting even an old acquaintance, which is an indif- 
ferent likeness of it. 

In the year 1747, the ' Ode to Eton College,* the 
first production of Gray that appeared in print, 
was published in folio, by Dodsley. Dr. "Warton, 
in his Essay on Pope, informs us, that "little no- 
tice was taken of it, on its first publication." 

Walpole wished him to print his own poems 
with those of his deceased friend West. This, 
however, he declined, thinking the materials not 
sufficient : but he complied with another wish of 
Walpole, in commemorating in an Ode the death 
of his favourite cat. To this little poem I may be 
permitted to apply the words of Cicero, when 
speaking of a work of his own : " Non est enim tale, 
ut in arte poni possit, quasi ilia Minerva Phidiae ; 
sed tamen, ut ex eadem officina, exisse appareat."* 
Soon after this, he sent to Dr. Wharton a part of 
his poem * On the Alliance of Education and Go- 
vernment.' He never pursued this subject much 
further. About a hundred lines remain ; and the 
commentary proceeds a little beyond the poem. 
Mr. Mason thinks that he dropped it from finding 
some of his best thoughts forestalled by M. de 
Montesquieu's L'Esprit des Loix,t which ap- 

* Vide Ciceronis Pragf. Paradoxa. ed. Olivet, vol. iii. p. 356. 
Paris. 

t Compare Montesquieu, L'Esprit des Loix, liv. xiv.chap ii. 



LllE OF GIIAY. XXV 



peared at tliat time : and other reasons, which I 
have elsewhere stated, probably concurred in in- 
ducing him to leave unfinished, a very fine speci- 
men of a philosophical poem. Some time after, 
says Mr. Mason, he had thoughts of resuming his 
plan, and of dedicating his poem by an introduc- 
tory Ode to M. de Montesquieu ; but that great 
man's death, which happened in 1755, made him 
drop his design finally. 

Gray was now forming for his own instruction 
a Table of Greek Chronology, which extended 
from the 30th to the 113th Olympiad, a period of 
332 years ; and which, while it did not exclude 
public events, was chiefly designed to compare 
the time of all great men, their writings and tran- 
sactions. Mr. Mason, who saw this work, says, 
" that every page was in nine columns : one for 
the Olympiad, the next for the Archons, the third 
for the Public Affairs of Greece, the three next 
for the Philosophers, and the three last for Poets, 
Historians, and Orators."* 

Greek literature about this time seems to have 
been his constant study. He says in a letter : " I 
have read Pausanias and Athenaius all through ; 
and ^schylus again. I am now in Pindar, and 
Lysias ; for I take verse and prose together like 
bread and cheese." 

* See Gibbon's Rome, vol. iii. p. 248. A plan similar to 
this has been executed by Bdv. Corsinus, in his ' Fasti Attici.^ 
four volumes 4to. Florence, 17G4. 



XXVI LIFE OF GRAY. 

In the year 1749, on the death of Mrs. Antro- 
bus, his mother was deprived of a sister and affec- 
tionate companion ; which loss, if we may judge by 
a letter of Gray, was a most severe affliction. It is 
not improbable that this circumstance may have 
turned his thoughts towards finishing his ' Elegy,'* 
which was commenced some time before. Whether 
that were the case or not, it now however received 
his last corrections, was communicated to Walpole, 
and handed about in manuscript with great ap- 
plause, among the higher circles of society. It was 
so popular, that when it was printed. Gray ex- 
pressed his surprise at the rapidity of the sale ; 
which Mr. Mason attributed, and, I think, justly, 
to the affecting and pensive cast of the subject. 
" It spread," he said, " at first, on account of the 
affecting and pensive cast of the subject, just like 
Hervey's Meditations on the Tombs. Soon after 
its publication, I remember sitting with Mr. Gray 
in his College apartment, he expressed to me his 

* The thouglit of that fine stanza in the Elegy, especially of 
the latter lines — 

" Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast 
The little tyrant of his fields withstood ; 
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest. 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood " — 

is expressed more briefly in the following passage of Plautu3; 

" Ut saepe summa ingenia in occulto latent. 
Hie qualis imperator, nunc privatus est." 

Captiv. act. iv. so. 2. 



LIFE OF GRAY. XXVU 

surprise at the rapiditj^ of its sale. I replied : 

Sunt lacrymae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.* 

He paused awhile, and taking his pen, wrote the 
line on a printed copy of it lying on his table. 
* This,' said he, ' shall be its future motto.' ' Pity,' 
cried I, ' that Dr. Young's Night Thoughts have 
preoccupied it.' ' So,' replied he, ' indeed it is.' He 
had more reason to think I had hinted at the true 
cause of its popularity, when he found how diffe- 
rent a reception his two odes at first met with." * 
Pathetic composition, which is employed in de- 
scribing to us our own griefs, or the sufferings of 
others, makes its way to the heart at once ; it 
always finds some disposition of the mind favour- 
able to receive it, some passion which cannot 
resist its power, some feelings which participate 
in its sorrows. Much time elapses, before works 
of elaborate structure, of lofty flight, and of learned 
allusion, gain possession of the public mind, and 
are placed in their proper rank in literature. 
While the 'Bard' and the 'Progress of Poetry' 
were but little read on their first appearance, Gray 
received at once the full measure of praise from 
the 'Elegy;' and perhaps even at this time, the 
Elegy t is the most popular of all his poems. Dr. 

* Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 84. 

f This Elegy was translated into Latin verse by Messrs. An- 
stey and Roberts, and not so successfully by Mr. Lloyd. It haj 
been translated also into Greek by Dr. Cooke, of King's College, 



XXVIU LIFE OF GRAY. 

Gregory, in a letter to Beattie, says: "It is a sen- 
timent that very universally prevails, that Poetry 
is a light kind of reading, which one takes up 
only for a little amusement ; and that therefore it 
should be so perspicuous as not to require a se- 
cond reading. This sentiment would bear hard on 
some of your best things, and on all Gray's except 
his ' Church-yard Elegy, ' which, he told me, with 
a good deal of acrimony, owed its popularity en- 
tirely to the subject, and that the public would 
have received it as well if it had been written in 
prose." And Dr. Beattie, writing to Sir William 
Forbes, says : " Of all the English poets of this 
age, Mr. Gray is most admired, and I think with 
justice ; yet there are comparatively speaking, but 
a few who know any thing of his, but his ' Church- 
yard Elegy,' which is by no means the best of his 
works." This production was the occasion of the 
author's acquaintance with Lady Cobham, who 
lived in the manor-house at Stoke ; and the way 
in which it commenced, was described by him in 
a poem called the ' Long Story.' The Elegy ha\ - 

and published at che end of his edition of Aristotle's Poetics. 
Since that time, it has been translated into the same language 
by Dr. Norbury, and Mr. Tew of Eton, Mr. Stephen Weston, 
and Dr. Coote. Its imitators also have been very numerous. 
The Bard was translated into Latin verse, in 1775. It is said 
that within the precincts of the church of Granchester, ^bout 
two miles from Cambridge, Gray wrote his Elegy. The curfew 
mentioned by the poet was of course the great bell of St 
Mary's. V. Gent. Mag. May, 1814, p. 453. 



Lljb'E OF GRAl. XXIX 

ing now appeared in some of the periodical publi- 
cations and magazines, and having been published 
with great inaccuracies, Gray requested Walpole 
to have it printed in a more respectable and accu- 
rate manner, hj Uodsley, but without the apparent 
knowledge or approbation of the author. It is to 
be observed, that in the early editions, the Elegy 
is not printed in stanzas of four lines, but con- 
tinuously. It is also written in the same manner 
by Gray in the Pembroke and Wharton manu- ' 
scripts. By this connected system of metre, the 
harmony of the poem acquires a fuller compass. 
Mason adopted it in his four Elegies ; and it has 
been lately used by Mr. Roscoe in his translation 
of the Greek poem of Musurus, which Aldus pre- 
fixed to his edition of Plato.* 

His thoughts, however, were for a short time 
called off from poetry, by the illness of his mother; 
and he hastened from Cambridge to attend upon 
her. Finding her better than he expected, he 
employed himself, during his stay, in superintend- 
ing an edition of his poems, which was soon after 
published, with designs by Mr. Bentley, f the 

♦ Some remarks on this Elegy, which were originally printed 
by me in the Gent. Mag for April, 1836, will be found in tho 
Appendix to this Life. — Ed. 

t Bentley's original drawings are in the library of Straw- 
berry-Hill. See Walpole's Works, vol. ii. p. 447; and Letft* 
to G. Montagu, p. 97. Mr. Cvmiberland, in the Memoirs of 
his Life, vol. i. p. 33, thinks that he sees "a satire in copDor- 



XXX LIFE OF GRAT. 

only son of the learned Dr. Bentley, and the 
friend of Walpole ; a person of various and ele- 
gant acquirements, as well as of very considera- 
ble talents. To him Gray addressed a Copy of 
Verses, highly extolling his powers as a painter. 
The original drawings in Walpole's possession, 
Mr. Mason says, are infinitely superior to the 
prints ; but even with this allowance, the praise 
must be considered rather friendly than just ; 
since their merit consists in the grotesque and 
quaint fancy which marks the designs ; in the 
whimsical manner in which the painter has em- 
bellished the images of the poet ; and which, if it 
were intended to correspond to the style of the 
* Long Story,' would not be an unsuccessful effort 
of the sister-art. The tributes, however, which 
are paid by Friendship to Genius, ought not to 
be sparing or scanty : and Gray might remember 
the example of Dryden and of Pope, in their 
complimentary eulogies on Kneller. 

In March 1753, he lost the mother, whom he 
had so long and so affectionately loved ; and he 

plate in the etchings of Bentley; and that his uncle has com- 
pletely libelled both his poet and his patron without intending 
to do so." "Mr. Cumberland says, at p. 216 of the same vo- 
lilme, that Gray wrote an elaborate critique on a play of Bent- 
ley's writing called 'Philodamus,' which was acted at Covent 
Garden. For an account of R. Bentley see Brydges' Resti- 
tuta, vol. iv. p. 364. Scott's Lives of the Novelists, vol. ii. 
p. 235. Boaden's Life of Mrs. Siddons, i. p. 360. R. Bentley 
died Oct. 1782. 



LIFE OF GRAY. XXXI 

placed over her remains an inscription whicli 
strongly marks his piety and sorrow : 

Beside her Friend and Sister, 

Here sleep the Kemains of 

Dorothy Gray, 

Widow; the careful tender Mother 

Of many Children ; one of whom alone 

Had the Misfortune to survive her. 

She died March xi. mdccliii. 

Aged Lxxii.* 

It is usually supposed that Gray's ' Ode on the 
Progress of Poetry' was written in 1755. From 
a letter to Walpole it appears that it was then 
finished, excepting a few lines at the end« He 
mentions his being so unfortunate as to come too 
late for Mr. Bentley's edition, and talks of insert- 
ing it in Dodsley's Collection. In 1754, it is 
supposed that he wrote the Fragment of 'An Ode 
to Vicissitude,' as it is now called. The idea and 
some of the lines are taken from Gresset's 'Epi- 
tre sur ma Convalescence.' Another Ode was 
also sketched, which might be called 'The Li- 
berty of Genius,' though some of Gray's biogra- 
phers, for what reasons I am ignorant, have 
called it ' The Connection between Genius and 

* The latter part of Gray's epitaph has a strong resemblance 
to an inscription on a sepulchral cippus found near the Villa 
Pelluchi, at Rome, now (I believe) in the British Museum, 

D. M. Dasumise. Soteridi. Liberta3. Optima;, et. flonjugi, 

Sanctissimee. bene. mer. fee. L. Dasumius. Callistus. cum. qua 
vixit. An XXXV. sine. ulla. querella. optans. ut. ipsa. sibi. po- 
tius. superstes. fuisset. quam. se. sibi. superstitem. reliquisset. 



XXXll LIFK Or GilAY. 

Grandeur.' The argument of it^ the only part 
which was ever written, is as follows: "All that 
men of power can do for men of genius is to leave 
them at their liberty ; compared to birds that, 
when confined to a cage, do but regret the loss of 
their freedom in melancholy strains, and lose the 
luscious wildness and happy luxuriance of their 
notes, which used to make the woods resound." 
The supplement to this Poem is very inferior to 
the original, so tiiat we may unite in opinion with 
an eminent critic, that it is better to leave the un- 
finished creations of genius in their imperfect 
form. * Nobis placet exemplum Priscorum, qui 
Apelleam Venerem imperfectam maluerunt, quam 
integram manu extranea.' * Gray, as Walpole 
remarked, was indeed " in flower " these last 
three years. The ' Bard ' was commenced, and 
part of it communicated to Mr. Stonehewer and 
Dr. Wharton, 1755. In these letters he for the 
first time complains of listlessness and depression 
of spirits, which prevented his application to 
poetry : and from this period we may trace the 
course of that hereditary disease in his constitu- 
tion, which embittered in a considerable degree 
the remainder of his days ; and the fatal strength 
of which, not even the temperance and regularity 
of a whole life could subdue. In his pocket jour- 
nal for this year, besides a diary of the weather, 
and a very accurate calendar of observations on 

* Vide Gruteri not; ad Plautum, vol. i. p. 295j 4to. 



LIFE Ob URAY. XXXlll 

natural history, he kept a regular account of his 
health in Latin. By this it appears that his con- 
stitution was much r_ifeebled and impaired, that 
alarming attacks of the gout were perpetually re- 
curring and disordering his frame. He speaks 
constantly of the sleepless night, and the feverish 
morning; and seems seldom to have been free 
from pain, debility, and disease. Expressions 
similar to the following, are in almost every page : 
* Insomnia crebra, atque expergiscenti surdus 
quidam doloris sensus ; frequens etiam in regione 
sterni oppress io, et cardialgia gravis, fere sempi- 
terna." 

"The Bard" was for some time left unfinished ; 
but " the accident of seeing a blind harper (Mr. 
Parry) perform on a Welsh harp,* again (he 
says) put his Ode in motion, and brought it at last 
to a conclusion."t This poem appears to have 
been submitted to the critical opinion of his 
friends. He mentions a remark upon it by Dr. 
Hurd ; and he had recourse to the judgment of 
Mr. Mason, " whose cavils (Walpole says) almost 
induced him to destroy his two beautiful and su- 
blime Odes." 

Some time previous to this, Dodsley had pub- 
lished his Collection of Poems, in three volumes, J 

* For an Account of Parry, see Smith's Life of Nollekens, 
vol. ii. p. 213. 

f See Walpoliana, vol. i. p. 46. 

t Dodsley published three volumes of this Collection, in 1762 : 

d 



XXXIV LIFE OF GilAY. 

wMcli Walpole sent to Gray. The observations 
made by the latter, as they were not published in 
Mr. Mason's Life, and as it is interesting to read 
the opinions which he entertained of his poetical 
contemporaries, I shall extract from the letter to 
his friend, in as short a compass as I can. 

"To begin, (he says,) with Mr. Tickell: — This 
is not only a state poem (my ancient aversion), 
but a state poem on the Peace of Utrecht. If Mr. 
Pope had wrote a panegyric on it, one could 
hardly have read him with patience. But this is 
only a poor short-winded imitator of Addison, who 
had himself not above three or four notes in 
poetry ; sweet enough indeed, like those of a Ger- 
man flute, but such as soon tire and satiate the ear 
with their frequent return. Tickell has added to 
this a great poverty of sense, and a string of transi- 
tions that hardly become a school-boy. However, 
I forgive him for the sake of his Ballad, which I 
always thought the prettiest in the world. All 
there is of Mr. Green here, has been printed be- 
fore ; there is a profusion of wit every where. 
Reading would have formed his judgment, and 
harmonized his verse; for even his wood-notes 
often break out into strains of real poetry and mu- 
sic. The ' School-Mistress '* is excellent in its kind 

the fourth volume was published in 1755; and the fifth and 
sixth Tolumes, which completed the Collection, in 1758. 

* The School-Mistress is by far the best of Shenstone'a 
poems. The variations from the first edition are very curioxis. 



LIFE OF GRAY. XXXV 

and masterly: and 'London' is one of those few 
imitations that have all the ease and all the spirit 
of the original. The same man's * Verses at the 
Opening of Garrick's Theatre are far from bad. 
Mr. Dyer has more of poetry in his imagination, 
than almost any of our number ; but rough and in- 
judicious. I should range Mr. Bramston only a 
step or two above Dr. King, who is as low in my 
estimation as in yours. Dr. Evans is a furious mad- 
man ; and ' Pre-existence ' is nonsense in all her 
altitudes. Mr. Lyttleton is a gentle elegiac per- 
son.f Mr. Nugent sure did not write his own Ode. 
I like Mr. Whitehead's little poems, (I mean The 
Ode on a Tent, The Verses to Garrick, and parti- 
cularly those to Charles Townshend,) better than 
any tiling I had ever seen before of him. I gladly 
pass over H. Brown and the rest, to come at you. 
You know 1 was of the publishing side, and thought 
your reasons against it — none : for though, as 
Mr. Chute said extremely well, 'the still small 
voice' of Poetry was not made to be heard in a 

His writings in prose abound witli sound reflection, and know- 
ledge of human nature; and are written in a neat and unaf- 
fected manner, displaying great benevolence of mind and gen- 
tleness of disposition. Mr. Graves (the author of the Spiritual 
Quixote) wrote a pamphlet, called • Recollections of some Parti- 
culars in the Life of William Shenstone, Esq. &o.' to vindicate 
his friend from the censure of Dr. Johnson, Gray, and Mason. 

* Dr. Samuel Johnson. See W. S. Landor's Satire on Sati- 
rists, p. 14. 

t See Walpole's Noble Authors, vol. i. p. 649, and Warton'a 
Pope, vol. iv. 309. 



XXXVl LIFE OF GRAY. 

crowd, yet Satire will be heard, for all the audi- 
ence are by nature her friends What shall 

I say to Mr. Lowth, Mr. Ridley, Mr. RoUe, the 
Rev. Mr. Brown, Seward, &c If I say, ' Mes- 
sieurs ! this is not the thing : write prose, write 
sermons, write nothmg at all,' they will disdain 
me and my advice. Mr. S. Jenyns now and then 
can write a good line or two, such as these : 

* Snatcli us from all our little sorrows here, 
Calm every grief, and dry eaeh childish tear.' 

1 like Mr. Aston Hervey's Fable ; and an Ode the 
last of all, by Mr. Mason ; a new acquaintance of 
mine, whose Musceus too seems to carry with it the 
promise at least of something good to come. I was 
glad to see you distinguished who poor West was 
before his charming Ode, and called it any thing 
rather than a Pindaric. The Town is an owl, if it 
don't like Lady Mary ; and I am surprised at it. We 
here are owls enough to think her Eclogues very 
bad: but that, I did not wonder at. Our present 
taste is Sir Thomas Fitzosborne's Letters," &c.* 
In 1756 Gray left Peter-house, where he had 
resided above twenty years, on account of some 
incivilities he met with, which are slightly men- 
tioned in his correspondence. He removed to 
Pembroke-hall, where his most intimate friends 
resided ; and this he describes, " as an aera in a 
life so barren of events as his." 

» See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 393. 



LIFE OF GRAY. XXX Vll 

In July 1757, he took his Odes to London, to 
be published. " I found Gray (says H. Walpole) 
in Town, last week. He brought his two Odes * 
to be printed. I snatched them out of Dodsley's 
hands, and they are to be the first-fruits of my 
press." Although the genius of Gray was now 
"in its firm and mature age," and though his 
poetical reputation was deservedly celebrated ; it 
is plain that these Odes were not favourably re- 
ceived. " His friends (he says) write to him, that 
they do not succeed," and several amusing criti- 
cisms on them are mentioned in the Letters. Yet 
there were not wanting some better judges who 
admired them. They had received the judicious 
and valuable approbation of Mason and of Hurd; f 
and if Gray felt any pleasure in the poem which 
Garrick wrote in their praise, he must have been 
yet more gratified, when Warburton, while he be- 
stowed on them his lionest applause, shewed his 
indignation at those who condemned, without 
being able to understand them. I 

* Of these Odes, a thousand copies were printed at Straw- 
berry-Hill. 

t It is, I believe, to Gray that Hurd alludes in the Essay 
on the Marks of Imitation, as to the '♦ common friend of Mason 
and himself," who had suggested an imitation of Spenser, by 
Milton: see vol. iii. p. 48. 

% Gray's Odes were reviewed in the Monthly Review for 
1757, p. 239, They were also reviewed in the Critical Re- 
view, vol. iv. p. 167; in which the critic mistook the kloXrjta 
fioTinrj (the ^Eolian lyre), for the iBolian barp, the instru- 



XXXVUl LIFE OF GRAY. 

About ten years before this time, tbe Odes of 
Collins * were published, and received with the 
most unmerited neglect. The public had been so 
long delighted with the wit and satire of Pope, had 
formed their taste so much on his manner of ver- 
sification, and had been so accustomed to dwell 
upon the neat and pointed style of that finished 
writer; that they were but ill prepared to admire 
the beauties of the lofty and magnificent language, 
in which Collins arrayed his sublime conceptions ; 
and which was tasteless to those, who, but a few 
years before, had received the last book of the 
Dunciad, from the dying hands of their favourite 
poet ; and who could not pass from wit, and epi- 
gram, and satire, to the bold conceptions, the ani- 
mated descriptions, and the wild grandeur of lyric 
poetry, t The very works which have now raised 

ment invented by Kircher about 1649; and, alter being for- 
gotten for a century, discovered by Mr. Oswald. A passa.ge in 
this Keview, suggested to Dr. Johnson an objection of which 
he made use, in his criticism on Gray; viz. "Is there not, 
(says the Critical Review) a trifling impropriety in this line, 
' Weave the warp, and weave the woof ; ' — Is not the warp 
laid, and the woof afterwards woven'? Suppose he ha.d writ- 
ten ' Stretch the warp, and weave the woof.' " Compare John- 
son's Life of Gray, vol. xi. p. 377, ed. Murphy. 

* The Odes of Collins were published in 1746. The open 
manner in which Goldsmith in his Threnod. Aug. borrowed 
whole lines and stanzas from Collins, is a strong proof how 
little Collins' Poems were then known. 

•f See T. Warton's Preface to Milton's Minor Poems, p. 1. 
10, for a support of this opinion, and Mason's Life of White- 
head, p. 12. 



LIl K OF GRAY. XX XIX 

Gray and Collins to the rank of our two greatest 
lyric poets, were either neglected, or ridiculed by 
their contemporaries ; while to appreciate the just- 
ness of their thoughts, the harmony of their num- 
bers, and the splendid creations of their genius, 
was left for the more correct decisions of time. 

Those who are really competent judges of the 
merit of poetry, in any age, are necessarily but 
few ; the great and general mass of poetical 
readers are constantly varying among the favour- 
ites of the time ; raising with their breath the 
bubble of that reputation to-day, which they take 
the same pains to destroy to-morrow. 

Quod dedisti 
Viventi decus, atque sentient! 
Rari post cineres habent Poetae.* 

But a poet who receives the praise of an enlight- 
ened age, may with confidence expect its continu- 
ance; if he write, not for the fluctuation of taste, 
nor the caprice of. fashion ; but on his own ex- 
tended views of nature, on his own confirmed 
knowledge and experience, and on the solid prin- 
ciples of the art. He who acquires the admiration 
of the present time, by addressing himself to their 
taste, by following their judgment, and by soliciting 
their applause, may be sure that his productions 
will be superseded by the favourite rivals of the 
age to come. ITwf av 6 fiir' kfii irdc movaeiev aicjv, 

* See Martial. Eleg. Lib. i. 2, 4, and Bentivoglio*s Letters, 

p. 144, and JohnsoT\'s Life of Cowley, p. G2. 



Xl LIFE OF GRAY. 

was the sensible advice of Longinus,* to those, 
who "with a noble ambition aim at immortality." 
There is a passage in the Life of Thomson writ- 
ten by his friend, in which he mentions the reason 
of the discouragement shewn, by some critics of 
that day, to the poetry of that interesting writer ; 
and which applies equally in the case of Collins 
and of Gray ; as the same cause that impeded the 
favourable reception of the Seasons, still continued 
to exert its powerful influence. " The Poem of 
Winter, (says Mr. Murdoch, who speaks from his 
own observation,) was no sooner read, than uni- 
versally admired ; those only excepted, who had 
not been used to feel, or to look for any thing in 
poetry beyond a point of satirical or epigrammatic 
wit ; a smart antithesis richly trimmed with rhyme ; 
or the softness of an elegiac complaint. To such 
his manly classical spirit could not readily recom- 
mend itself; till after a more attentive perusal, 
they had got the better of their prejudices, and 
either acquired, or affected a truer taste. A few 
others stood aloof, merely because they had long 
before fixed the articles of their poetical creed, and 
resigned themselves to an absolute despair of ever 
seeing any thing new and original." From that 
time, till after the death of Gray, the strong and 
almost exclusive influence of Pope's versification 
was felt on English poetry. Mason, speaking of 

• Vide Longiauin nepl 'Ttpovc. Sect. XIV. iii. p. 57. 



LIFE OF GRAY. xli 

Gray's Hymn or Address to Ignorance, says, — 
" Many of the lines are so strong, and the general 
cast of the versification so musical, that I believe 
it will give the generality of readers a higher 
opinion of his poetical talents, than many of his 
lyrical productions would have done. I speak of 
the generality ; for it is a certain fact, that their 
taste is founded upon the ten syllable couplet of 
Dry den and Pope, and of these only." 

In this year Gibber died at an advanced age, 
and the Laureatship was offered by the Duke of 
Devonshire, then Lord Chamberlain, to Gray; 
with a remarkable and honourable privilege, to 
hold it as a mere sinecure. This he respectfully 
declined ; and some of his reasons for refusing it, 
he gives in a letter to Mr. Mason : " The office 
itself (he says) has always humbled the possessor 
hitherto : — if he were a poor writer, by making 
him more conspicuous ; and if he were a good one, 
by setting him at war with the little fry of his own 
profession ; for there are poets little enough, even 
to envy a poet-laureat." * 

Upon Gray's refusal, the laurel was accepted 
by Mr. Whitehead, who joined to very competent 
talents, what made those talents respectable — mo- 
desty and worth. Mr. Mason had by him letters 
of Gray, in which he gave Whitehead's first and 
second odes great encomiums. To Cibbijr indeed, 

* See Mason's Life of Whitehead, vol. i. p. 92, and G. 
Colman's Works, a-^oI. iii. p. IGl. 



Xlii LIFE OF GRAY. 

he was in every respect infinitelj superior : but it 
is no disgrace to Mr. Whitehead to affirm, that 
to the genius of that poet who succeeded him, we 
are indebted for the finest productions that have 
ever ennobled an office, in itself not most friendly 
to the Muses. Mr. Mason was not quite over- 
looked on this occasion. " Lord John Cavendish 
(he says) made an apology to him, ' that being in 
orders, he was thought less eligible than a lay 
man.' " A little tinge of that satire which occa- 
sionally darted its shafts into the world from the 
retirement of Aston, is now visible in Mr. Mason's 
narrative,* when he adds, "that he wonders the 
same privilege, of holding the office as a sine- 
cure, was not offered to Mr. Whitehead ; as the 
king would readily have dispensed with hearing 
j)oetry, for which he had no taste, and music, for 
v/hich he had no ear." f 

In 1758, Gray describes-himself as composing, 
lor his own amusement, the little book which he 
(alls 'A Catalogue of the Antiquities, Houses, 
&c., in England and Wales ; ' and which he drc ^v 
up on the blank pages of Kitchen's English At- 
las. After his death it was printed and distri- 
buted by Mr. Mason to his friends. J 

* See Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 87, and on T. War- 
ton's Lyrical merits, p. 93. 

t See Johnson's Epigram, in his Poems by Park, p. 72. 

X A new edition .was printed in 1787 for sale. Mr. Mason's 
was only intended f v pr.srn! . 



LIFE OF GRAY. xliii 

About this period, much of his time seems to 
have been employed in the study of architecture ; 
in which his proficiency, as indeed in all other 
branches of learning which he pursued, was accu- 
rate and deep. Some of his observations on this 
subject afterwards appeared in Mr. Bentham's 
History of Ely. In the Gentleman's Magazine 
for April 1784, a letter from Gray to Mr. Ben- 
tham is published, which contains all the informa- 
tion afforded to the latter. It was printed in 
consequence of the circulation of a report, that 
the whole of the Treatise on Saxon, Norman, and 
Gothic Architecture, published in the History of 
Ely, was written by Gray.* On the 15th of Janu- 
ary 1759, the British Museum was ojDcned to the 
public ; and Gray went to London to read and 
transcribe the manuscripts which were collected 
there from the Harleian and Cottonian libraries. 
A folio volume of his transcripts was in Mr. Ma- 
son's hands ; out of which, one paper alone — The 
speech of Sir Thomas Wyattf before the Privy 
Council — was published in the second number 
of Lord Orford's Miscellaneous Antiquities ; but, 



* See Bentham's preface to the History of Ely, (new 
edit.) p. 13 ; Selections from the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 
ii. p. 249; and Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, vol. iii. p. 489; 
and Gentleman's Magazine, vol. liii. p. 37, 138, 301, 375: 
vol. liv. p. 243. 

■j- See Chalmers's Life of Sir Thomas Wyatt in the British 
Poets, vol. ii. p. 363. 



Xliv LIFZ OF GRAY. 

as I understand from a note in Dr. Nott's Edi- 
tion of Lord Surrey, very imperfectly. * 

He was, as Dr. Johnson observed, but little af- 
fected by two Odes of Obscurity and Oblivion f 
written by Messrs. Colman and Lloyd, wliich then 
appeared in ridicule of him, and Mr. Mason. The 
humour of these poems, in my opinion, has been 
much over-praised. Warburton calls them " two 
miserable buffoon Odes." j Like all other pro- 
ductions of a personal and satirical nature, their 
subject ensured to them a short period of popula- 
rity. We know with what avidity those works 
are perused, which hold up to the derision of the 
public the peculiarities of genius and learning. 
Almost every author of talent, at some time or 
other, becomes the mark at which ridicule is 
aimed. In this particular case, the most modest 
and retired habits, as well as the most exalted 
talents, were dragged out with circumstances of 
laughter and contempt, by men very inferior' to 
Gray, either in the strictness of their moral cha- 
racter, or in the depth and extent of their literary 
attainments. Yet, while I think their ridicule was 
not happy or successful, I do not see those marks 
of rancour and malevolence in their design, which 

♦ See Nott's Surrey, vol. ii. p. Ixiv. 

f The Ode to Obscurity was directed chtefly against Gray; 
that to Oblivion against Mason. See Lloyd's Poems, vol. i. 
p. 120. 

:j: See Warburton's Letters, by Hurd, Lett. cxli. 



LIFE OF GRAY. xlv 

SO often imbiiter and disgrace the Satires of 
Churcliill ; * which the intemperance of youth, I 
am afraid, can hardly excuse; and which must 
raise constant disgust in those, who read the works 
of that powerful, though unfinished writer. Dr. 
Warton, in his notes on Pope, f says, " The Odes 
of Gray were burlesqued by two men of wit and 
genius ; who, however, once owned to me, thai 
they repented of the attemptJ'' 

During Gray's residence in London, he became 
slightly acquainted with the amiable naturalist 
Mr. Stillingfieet, whose death took place a few 
months after his own.j At the request of Mr. 
Montagu, he wrote an ' Epitaph on Sir William 
Williams,' who was killed at the siege of Belleisle. 
In 1762 the professorship of modern history be- 
came vacant by the death of Mr. Turner. By the 

* Churchill mentions Gray in the Ghost — " And plaintive 
fops debauched by Gray ; " — also in the Journey, in which 
poem Armstrong is saterized, in language of unbecoming and 
inexcusable asperity. Mrs. Chapone, in a Letter dated 1764, 
says, — " You keep luy genius down continually by throwing 
cold water on it? dying embers ; and terrifying my poor muse, 
as much as Churchill does that of Gray." Chapone's Letters, 
vol. ii. p. 164, date 1764. 

t See Warton's Pope, vol. i. p. 236. See also G. Colman's 
Works, vol. i p. xi. 

J Mr Benjamin Stillingfieet died December 15, 1771, aged 
69 A very pleasing tribute to his memory has lately been 
paid by the Rev. Mr. Coxe; by a careful selection from hia 
unpublished Works, and a Life of him, and his literary friends, 
in three volumes 8vo. 1811. 



Xlvi LIFE OF GRAY. 

advice of liis friends, lie applied to Lord Bute for 
the place, through the medium of Sir Henry 
Erskine. He was refused; and the professor- 
shi]3 was given to Mr. Brocket, the tutor of Sir 
James Lowther. " And so (says Gray, humour- 
ously passing over his disappointment) I have 
made my fortune like Sir Francis Wronghead." 

In the summer of 1765, he took a journey 
into Scotland, to improve his health, which was 
becoming more weak and uncertain, as weir as to 
gratify his curiosity with the natural beauties and 
antiquities of that wild and romantic country. He 
went through Edinburgh and Perth to Glamis- 
Castle, the residence of Lord Strathmore, where 
he stayed some time. Thence he took a short 
excursion into the Highlands, crossing Perthshire 
by Loch-Tay, and pursuing the road from Dun- 
keld to Liverness, as far as the pass of Gillikran- 
kie. Then returning to Dunkeld, he travelled on 
the Stirling road to Edinburgh. *' His account of 
his journey, (says Dr. Johnson,) so far as it ex- 
tends, is curious and elegant : for as his compre- 
hension was ample, his curiosity extended to all 
the works of art, all the appearances of nature, and 
all the monuments of past events." In Scotland he 
formed an acquaintance with Dr. Beattie ; who 
had been the first to welcome him on his arrival 
in the North, with a testimony of the high admi- 
ration in which he held his genius and his cha- 
racter ; and which was truly valuable, because it 



LIFE OF Gil AY. xlvil 

was the voluntary praise of one, wlio himself 
possessed the feeling and power of a poet. I 
transcribe Dr. Beattie's Letter, from his Life, 
published by Sir William Forbes : — 

** Maxischal College of Aberdeen, 
30th of August, 1765. 

" If I thought it necessary to offer an apology 
for venturing to address you in this abrupt man- 
ner, I should be very much at a loss how to begin. 
I might plead my admiration of your genius, and 
my attachment to your character ; but who is he 
that could not with truth urge the same excuse for 
intruding upon your retirement ? I might plead 
my earnest desire to be personally acquainted 
with a man, whom I have so long and so passion- 
ately admired in his writings ; but thousands, of 
greater consequence than I, are ambitious of the 
same honour. I, indeed, must either flatter my- 
self that no apology is necessary, or otherwise, 
I must despair of obtaining what has long been 
the object of my most ardent wishes. I must 
for ever forfeit all hopes of seeing you, and con- 
versing with you. 

" It was yesterday I received the agreeable 
news of your being in Scotland, and of your 
intending to visit some parts of it. Will you 
permit us to hope, that we shall ha^e an op- 
portunity at Aberdeen, of thanking you in person, 
for the honour you have done to Britain, and 
to the poetic art, by your inestimable composi- 



Xlviii LIFE OF GKAY. 

tious, and of offering you all that we have that 
deserves your acceptance ; namely, hearts full of 
esteem, respect and affection ? If you cannot 
come so far northward, let me at least be ac- 
quainted with the place of your residence, and 
permitted to wait on you. Forgive, sir, this re- 
quest : forgive me, if I urge it with earnestness, 
for indeed it concerns me nearly : and do me the 
justice to believe, that I am with the most sincere 
attachment, and most respectful esteem," &c. 

Gray declined the honour which the Univer 
sity of Aberdeen was disposed to confer on him, 
(of the degree of doctor of laws,) lest it might 
appear a slight and contempt of his own Univer- 
sity, " where (he says) he passed so many easy 
and happy hours of his life, where he had once 
lived from choice, and continued to do so from 
obligation." In one of his conversations with Dr. 
Beattie,* who expressed himself with less admi- 
ration of Dryden than Gray thought his due ; he 
told him, " that if there was any excellence in his 
own numbers, he had learned it wholly from that 
great poet ; and pressed him with great earnest- 
ness to study him, as his choice of words and 
versification was singularly happy and harmo- 
nious." — " Remember Dryden, (he also wrote,) 
and be blind to all his faults." t 

* See Beattie's Essay on Poetry and Music, 4to. p. 360 
(note). 

t Mr. Mason, in his Life of Whitehead, p. 17, says *' that 



LIFE OF GRAY. xlix 

Fart of the summer of 17G6 Gray passed in a 
tour in Kent, and at the house of his friend Mr. 
Robinson, on the skirts of Barham Down. In a 
letter in my possession, from Mrs. Robinson to a 
friend, dated June 2, 1766, she says : " I have 
met with several interruptions, partly owing to 
our having had for almost a foitnight a very 
agreeable gentleman in the house, whose conver- 
sation is both instructive and entertaining; after 
what I have said, you will wish to know his 
name — 'tis Mr. Gray — who is well known for 
having wrote several pretty elegies ; he is also an 
acquaintance of your friend Mr. Rycroft," &c. * 
In 1767 he again left Cambridge, and went to 
the North of England, on a visit to Dr. Wliar- 

Gray, who admired Dryden almost beyond bounds, used to say 
of a very juvenile poem of his, in Tonson's Miscellany, written 
on the Death of Lord Halifax, that it gave not so much as the 
slightest promise of his future excellency, and seemed to indi- 
cate a bad natural ear for versification. I believe Derrick 
reprinted this poem in his edition of Dryden." There is no 
poem that I can discover by Dryden on the Death of Lord 
Halifax; but I suppose Mr. Mason meant a Poem on the Death 
of Lord Hastings, (See Scott's Life of Dryden, p. 28.) written 
when Dryden was only eighteen, and at Westminster School, 
and which is the first poem in Derrick's Collection ; and is also 
in p. 116 of the first volume of Tonson's Miscellany. These 
lines are certainly most singularly inharmonious, with much of 
the strained allusion and rough style of Donne. At the end 
of • Halifax's Miscellanies,' there is an anonymous poem to his 
memory, of considerable merit ; but I am not able to say by 
whom it was written. See also Mason's Works, vol. i. p. 451. 
* See Miss Carter's Letters to Mrs. Montagu, vol. i p. 364. 

e 



1 LIFE 01'" GRAY. 

ton. He liad intended a second tour to Scotland, 
but returned to London without accomplishing 
his design. At Dr. Beattie's desire, a new edi- 
tion of his Poems was published by Foulis at 
Glasgow ; and at the same time Dodsley was 
also printing them in London. In both these 
editions, the ' Long Story ' was omitted, as the 
plates from Bentley's designs were worn out: 
and Gray said, "that its only use, which was to 
explain the prints, was gone." Some pieces of 
"Welch and Norwegian Poetry, written in a bold 
and original manner, * were inserted in its place : 
of which the ' Descent of Odin ' is undoubtedly 
the most valuable, though in many places it is 
exceedingly obscure. I have mentioned, in the 
notes to this poem, that Gray translated only 
that part of it which he found in the Latin ver- 
sion of Bartholinus ; and to this cause much of 
the obscurity is owing. In a letter to Walpolef 
he says, " As to what you say to me civilly, — 
that I ought to write more, — I reply in our own 
words, like the pamphleteer who is going to con- 
fute you out of your own mouth ; ' What has one 
to do, when turned of fifty, but really to think of 
finishing ? ' However, I will be candid, for you 
seem to be so with me, and avow to you, that 

* See Mason*s Life of Whitehead, p. 84. See also Dry- 
den's Misoell. V. vi. p. 387, for a translation that may have 
turned Gray's thoughts to the Northern Poetry. 

t See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 374, Letter viii. 



LIFE OF GEAi'. 11 

till fourscore and upward, whenever the humour 
takes me, I will write ; because I like it, and be- 
cause I like myself better when I do so. If I do 
not write much, it is because I cannot." — " Gray," 
says Walpole, " has added to his Poems three 
ancient odes from Norway and Wales. The sub- 
jects of the two tirst are grand and picturesque, 
and there is Jiis genuine vein in them ; but they 
are not interesting, and do not, like his other 
poems, touch any passion : our human feelings, 
which he masters at will in his liner pieces, are 
not here aiFected. Who can care through what 
horrors a Runic savage arrived at all the joys 
and glories they could conceive, — the supreme 
felicity of boozing ale out of the skull of an ene- 
my in Odin's Hall ? " * To his Odes, Gray now 
found it necessary to add some notes, " Partly 
(he says) from justice, to acknowledge a debt 
when I had borrowed anything : partly from ill- 
temper, just to tell the gentle reader, that Ed- 
ward the First was not Oliver Cromwell nor 
Queen Elizabeth the Witch of Endor."t Wal- 
pole, in a letter to G. Montagu, says : " You are 
very [)articular, I can tell you, in liking Gray's 
Odes ; but you must remember the age likes 
Akenside, and did like Thomson. Can the same 
people like both ? Milton was forced to wait till 
the world had done admiring Quarles. Cam- 

♦ See Letter to (}. Montagu, p. 405. 

t See Suuthey's Life of Cuwper, voi. i. p. 325. 



lii LIFE OF GKAY. 

bridge told me t'other night, that my Lord Ches- 
terfield had heard Stanly read them as his own, 
but that must have been a mistake of my Lord's 
deafness. Cambridge said — ' Perhaps they are 
Stanly's, and not caring to own them, he gave 
them to Gray.' I think this would hurt Gray's 
dignity ten times more than his Poetry not suc- 
ceeding." 

In 1768 the professorship of modern history 
again became vacant by the accidental death of 
Mr. Brocket ; and the Duke of Grafton, then in 
power, at the request of Mr. Stonehewer, imme- 
diately bestowed it upon Gray.* In 1769, on the 
death of the Duke of Newcastle,! the Duke of 
Grafton was elected to the chancellorship of the 
University. His installation took place in tlie 
summer ; and Gray wrote his fine Ode that was 
set to music on the occasion : " He thought it 
better that Gratitude should sing, than Ex})ecta- 
tion." I He told Dr. Beattie, " that he consi- 
dered himself bound in gratitude to the Duke of 
Grafton, to write this Ode ; and that he foresaw 

* The professorship became vacant on Sunday, and the 
Duke of Graftrjn wrote to Gray on the following Wednesday: 
see Walpole's Letters, vol. v. p. 1:^7, and Pursuits of Lite- 
rature, p. 51, and H. Walpole's Letter to Conway, Aug. 9, 
1768. 

f The Duke of Newcastle died in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
the 17th of November 17(-i8, in the 77th year of his age. 

^ Pope toll Lord Halifax he would be troublesome "out of 
gratitude, not expectation.' v. Johnson's Life of Pope, p. 94. 



LIFE OF GilAY. lui 

the abuse that would be thrown on him for it, but 
did not think it worth his while to avoid it." He 
did not appear to set much value on the poem, 
for he says, " it cannot last above a single day, 
or if its existence be prolonged beyond that pe- 
riod, it must be by means of newspaper parodies, 
and witless criticism." Posterity however has 
more correctly estimated this beautiful produc- 
tion, than the author ; it is a very splendid crea- 
tion raised on an apparently barren subject.* 

When this ceremony was past, he went on a 
tour to the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmore- 
land. His friend Dr. Wharton, w^ho was to be 
his companion on the journey, was seized with 
the return of an asthmatic attack on the first 
day, and went home. To this accident we are 
indebted for a most elegant and lively journal 
of his tour, intended for his friend's amusement. 
The style in which these letters are written, is 
evidently the production of a person thoroughly, 
accustomed to the contemplation of his subject ; 
it is peculiarly clear, simple and elegant ; and 
abounds with those picturesque descriptions, 
which, though they can never enable language 



* " Gray," says a writer of very superior talent and taste, 
"has finely glanced at the bright point in Henry's character 
— 'The Majestic Lord' — in that beautiful stanza where he 
has made the founders of Cambridge pass before our eyes, like 
shadows over a magic glass " See Hallam^s Constitut. Hi»- 
tory, vol. i. p. 49. 



liv LIFE OF GKAY. 

totally to supply, can at least make it much as- 
sist, the local powers of the pencil. " He that 
reads his epistolary narrative (says Dr. John- 
son) wishes, that to travel, and to tell his tra- 
vels, had been more of his employment: but it 
is by staying at home, that we must obtain the 
abihty of travelling with intelligence and im- 
provement." 

In April 1770 he complains much of a depres- 
sion of spirits, talks of an intended tour into 
Wales in the summer, and of meeting his friend 
Dr. Wharton at Mr. Mason's. In July, however, 
he was still at Cambridge, and wrote to Dr. 
Beattie, comj)laining of illness and pain in his 
head ; and in this letter, he sent him some criti- 
cisms on the first book of the Minstrel, which 
have since been published.* His tour took place 
in the autumn : but not a single letter is pre- 
served m ]\Ir. Mason's book on this journey, to 
.any of his correspondents. He wrote no journal, 
and travelled with Mr. ]Sricholls,t of Blundeston, 
in Suffolk, a gentleman of much accomplishment, 

* See Forbes's Life of Beattie, vol. i. p. 197, 4to. letter xlv. 

t The taste of Mr. NichoUs enabled him to adorn, in the 
midst of a flat and unvaried coui^y, and on the bleak eastern, 
shore of England, a little valley, near Lowestoff, with beauties 
of no ordinary kind. Ov yap tl Kd?Mg X^P^^: ovS" eiplftepog, 
bv^ epdro^, oiog ufx^l Zipiog (iocug. v. Archilochi, Fr. p. 63. 
ed Liebel. " La villa (says Mr. Mathias) del Sig. Nicholls, 
detta Blundeston, alia spiaggia Orientale della contea de Suf- 
folk, due miglia lontana dal mare, disposta, ed ornata da lui 



LIFE i}i- <;KAY. IV 

and who was admitted, more than any other per- 
son, into intimate and unreserved friendship with 
Graj. He was I believe the Octavius of the 
Pursuits of Literature. The sketch of his life 
was written by Mr. Mathias, in 1809, in the Gent. 
Mag. and subsequently enlarged. The letters of 
Gray to Mr. Nicholls, which Mr. Dawson Turner 
possesses, fully prove the truth of Mr. Mathias's 
belief — 'that with the single exception of Mr. 
West, Gray was more affectionately attached to 
him than to any other person.' 

In May 1771 he wrote to Dr. Wharton, just 
sketching the outlines of his Tour in Wales and 
some of the adjacent Counties. This is the last 
letter that remains in Mr, Mason's Collection. 
He there complains of an incurable cough, of spi- 
rits habitually low, and of the uneasiness which 
the thought of the duties of his professorship 
gave him, which, after having held nearly three 
years, Mr. Mason says he had now a determined 
resolution to resign. He mentions also different 
plans of amusement and travel, that he had pro- 
con singolare fantasia, e con giudizio squisito. 11 Sig. Grray, 
de' Lirici Britanni Sovrano, vide gia con ammirazione, e molto 
ancora afctendea dal gonio del disegnatore." See a note in the 
first volume of ' Aggiunta ai Componimenti Lirici,^ &c. p. ii. 
and xi. But alas l^instead of the " i mobili cristalli d'un lim- 
pidissimolago,'' are we not reminded of 

" Questi valli 

Circondati di stagnanti fiumi 
Quandc cade dal ciel, piu lenta pioggia— " 



Ivi LIFE OF GKAY. 

jected ; but which unfortunately were not to be 
accomplished. Within a few days after the date 
of this last lettei', he removed to London, where 
his health more and more declined. His physi- 
cian, Dr. Gisborne, advised freer air, and he went 
to Kensington. There he in some degree revived, 
and returned to Cambridge, intending to go from 
that place to Old Park, near Durham, the resi- 
dence of his friend Dr. Wharton.* In the spring 
of 1769 or 1770, his friend Mr. Robinson saw 
Gray for the last time, in his lodgings in Jermyn 
Street. He was then ill, and in a state of appa- 
rent decay, and low spirits. He expressed regret 
that he had done so little in literature ; and be- 
gan to lament, that at last, when he had become 
easy in his circumstances, he had lost his health. 
But in this he checked himself, feeling that it was 
wrong to repine at the decrees of Providence. On 
the 24th of July, while at dinner in the College 
hall, he was seized with an attack of the gout t in 
his stomach. The violence of the disease resisted 
all the powers of, medicine: on the 29th he was 
seized with convulsions, which returned more vio- 
lently on the 30th ; and he expired in the even- 

* See H. Stevenson's Works, vol. ii. p. 210. 

f In a letter from Paris, August 11, 1771, H. Walpole 
says, on hearing the report of Gray's death, — " He called on 
me, but two or three days before I came hither: he complained 
of being ill, and talked of the gout in his stomach ; but I ex- 
pected his death no more than my own." 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ivii 

ing of that day, in the fifty-fifth year of his age ; 
sensible almost to the last : aware of his danger, 
and expressing, says his friend Dr. Brown, no 
visible concern at the thought of his approaching 
death. The care of his funeral devolved on one 
of his executors, Dr. Brown, the president of 
Pembroke-hall ; who saw him buried, as he de- 
sired in his will, by th^ side of his mother, in the 
church-yard of Stoke. His other executor and 
friend Mr. Mason was at that time absent in a 
distant part of Yorkshire, and when Dr. Brown 
wrote to him during Gray's short illness, he says, 
" as I felt strongly at the time what Tacitus has 
so well expressed on a similar occasion, I may 
with propriety use his words : ' Mihi, praeter 
acerbitatem amici erepti, auget raoestitiam, quod 
adsidere valetudini, fovere deficientem, satiari 
vultu, complexu non contigit.' " * 

Such was the life of Gray, who, however few 

♦ In 1778 Mason erected a monument for Gray in West- 
minster Abbey, with the following inscription, which seems to 
have this defect, that it is as much applicable to a monument 
to Milton, as to Gray : 

" No more the Grecian muse unrivall'd reigns. 
To Britain let the nations homage pay; 

She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, 
A Pindar's raptui'e in the lyre of Gray." 

'See Mason's Works, vol. i. p. 141. On Penn's Cenotaph to 
Gray, see Repton's Inquiry into the Changes of Taste in Land- 
scape Gardening, p. 71; see Roberts's Epistle to C. Anstey ou 
the English Poets, p. 110, on the death of Gray. 



Iviii LIFE 01^ GK<VT. 

his works,* must still hold a very distinguished 
rank among the English poets, for the excellence 
of his compositions, and for the splendour of his 
genius. Though the events of his life which I 
have brieflj sketched, are of common occurrence, 
and offer nothing in themselves to excite great 
interest in the reader ; yet there is surely some 
pleasure in contemplating the progress of a vir- 
tuous and enlightened mind, early withdrawn from 
public life to the stillness of the academic cloister; 
and confining its pleasures and prospects within 
the serenity of a studious retirement. Nor is it, 
I think, without some feelings of admiration, that 
we reflect on the history of a life so constantly 
and unremittingly devoted to the pursuit of know- 
ledge, and the general improvement of the mind, 
for its own sake, and as a final purpose. Motives, 
which have no honourable connection with litera- 
ture, are yet often instrumental in increasing it. 
The pursuit of wealth, of station, or of rank in a 
profession, is the constant and common incentive 
to mental exertion ; and is dignified, perhaps not 
improperly, by the name of honest ambition. 
Even among those of a nobler nature, the desire 
of being distinguished in their own, and after- 
ages, for the endowments of their mind, and the 

* *' Gray joins to the sublimity of Milton the elegance and 
harmony of Pope ; and nothing is wanting, to render him, per- 
haps, the first poet in the English language, but to have written a 
little more.^* — A. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, vol. L 
p. 256. 



LIFE OF GRAY. ilX 

energies of their genius, acts as a perpetual spur 
towards the increase of their exertions. Much of 
this feeling does not appear to have existed in the 
mind of Gray. To him, study seemed to bring all 
the reward he asked, in its ow^n gratification ; and 
his progress in learning was constant; even in 
the absence of those quickening motives, which, in 
almost all cases, are necessary to preserve men, 
either from weariness in the toil of original com- 
position, or from indolence in the acquisition, and 
arrangement, of the materials of collected know- 
ledge. That the publications of Gray, however, 
were so few, is to be attributed, I think, to several 
causes : — to the natural modesty and reserved- 
ness of his disposition ; to the situation of life in 
which he was placed, without any profession or 
public duty that might lead his thoughts and stu- 
dies in a particular direction ; to his habit of sub- 
mitting nothing to publication, without bestowing 
on it that polish and correctness, which demands 
long and patient attention, and which indeed seems 
incompatible with works of any magnitude or 
number ; to the extent and variety of his re- 
search ; and to the great temptations to read,* in 
a place which afforded a ready and almost bound- 
less supply of materials to satisfy him in any 
branch of knowledge ; and which would constantly 
induce him, to make fresh accessions to his in- 

* Mr. Mason says, that Gray often mentioned to him, that 
reading was much more agreeable to him than vyriting. 



Ix LIFE OF GRAY. 

formation, and to open new channels of inquiry. 
" I shall be happy (says Mr. Mason in a letter to 
Dr. Beattie) to know that the remaining books of 
your ' Minstrel ' are likewise to be published soon. 
The next best thing, after instructing the world 
[)roiitably, is to amuse it innocently. England 
lias lost that man (Gray) who, of all others in 
it, was best qualified for both these purposes ; 
hut who, from early chagrin and disappointment, 
had imbibed a disinclination to employ his talents 
beyond the sphere of self-satisfaction and im- 
provement." 

Of Gray's person, his biographer has given no 
account: and Lord Orford* has but just men- 
tioned it. The earliest picture of him, is that 
which was taken when he was fifteen years of 
age, by Richardson. It is now in the possession 
of Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, and by his permis- 
sion has been engraved. Another portrait was 
painted by Eckardt, and engraved in the Works 
of Lord Orford.f It is at Strawberry-Hill, and 
the design was taken from the Portrait of a Mu- 
sician, by Vandyck, at the Duke of Grafton's. 
This print was intended to be prefixed to Bent- 
ley's edition of Gray's Odes, with a motto from 
Lucan, (x. 296). 

"Neo liouit populis parvum te, Nile, videre: *':{: 

♦ See Walpoliana, vol. i. p. 95, 

f See Walpole'sWorks, vol.ii. p.431,436; andvol. v. p.362- 

I Dr. WaTton, in his Notes ou Pope (vol. i. p. 282), re- 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixi 

but Gray's extreme I'epugnance to the proposal, 
obliged his friends to drop it after the engraving 
was commenced. The print which Mr. Mason 
placed before his edition of tlie^Life of Gray in 
quarto, was from a picture by Wilson, drawn 
after the death of Gray, from his own and Mr. 
Mason's recollection ; and which is now in the 
possession of Pembroke- College, by the bequest 
of Mr. Stonehewer. The engraving, however, 
has not preserved the character of the counte- 
nance, and is, on the whole, an unfavourable like- 
ness. It is from this same picture, I understand, 
that the print prefixed to Mr. Mathias's edition 
is taken. To the edition of the Life in octavo, is 
prefixed a better resemblance, etched by W. 
Doughty,* from a drawing by Mr. Mason : and 
from this outline, two other portraits have pro- 
ceeded : one by a Mr. Sharpe of Cambridge ; 
and the other, which is now extremely rare, 
by the late Mr. Heushavv, a pupil of Barto- 
lozzi's.f In this latter print, a very correct and 

marks that Fontenelle had applied, the very same line to New- 
ton: and he adds: — "A motto to Mr. Gray's few, but ex- 
quisite poems might be from Lucretius, lib. iv. ver. 181 and 
907 : 

" ' Sua\adicis potius quam multis versibus edam. 
Parvus ut est cycni melior canor ' " 

* Sec an account of this pictun , and of W. Doughty, in 
Nortlu'.ote's Life of Reynolds, p. 23'2. 

t L>i. Tuiuer, the late Master of Pembroke-Hall, and 



Ixii LIFE OF GRAY. 

Bpirited likeness is preserved. A j)ortrait of Gray, 
bearing a resemblance to Mr. Mason's etching,* 
and painted by Vandei-gutcli, I have seen in the 
library of Lord Harcourt, at Nuneham. 

The Political opinions of Gray, H. Walpole 
says he never rightly understood : " sometimes 
he seemed inclined to tlie side of authority, and 
sometimes to that of the people." t Mr. Mason 
has mentioned notliiiig coneerniiig any singularity 
in his sentiments about Iveligion ; and there is, I 
believe, no passage in his published Letters, either 
to support, or absolutely to o})pose, the assertion 
made on this subject in the Walpoliana.J I must 
confess myself disinclined to believe it, in any de- 
gree, upon the authority of a few words, appa- 
rently used in conversation, and which afterwards 
appeared, without pi-oof or comment, in an ano- 
nymous publication. The personal friends of 
Gray, who could have cleared up this point, are, 
I believe, all dead : but 1 cannot find, that, in the 
place where he so constantly resided, or among 
those who have en^yed the best opportunities of 

Dean of Norwich, had two profile shades of Gray, taken with 
an instrument for that purpose, by a Mr. Maplctoft, formerly 
a fellow of that college, one of which conveys a strong resem- 
blance. 

* See Gent. Mag. May, 1814, p. 427. 

f See Walpoiiana, vol. i. p. 29, published by Mr. Pinkor- 
ton. 

:j: Ibid. vol. i. p. 95. 



LIFE OF GilAY. Ixiii 

hearing about bis opinions, the slightest suspi- 
cions existed, which could at all confirm the as- 
sertion of Walpole. It is a consideration of no 
small weight, that these supposed opinions of 
Gray have been delivered on the authority of two 
writers, neither of them, I believe, favourable to 
the cause of Christianity.* I shall merely men- 
tion, that in a letter to Mr. Mason,t speaking of 
Rousseau's ' Lettres de la Montague,' he says : 
" It is a weak attempt to separate miracles from 
the morality of the Gospel ; the latter he would 
think, he believes was sent from God, and the for- 
mer he very explicitly takes for an imposture." 
In a letter to H. Walpole,j he gives an account 
of some manuscript writings of Middleton against 
Waterland, on the 'doctrine of the Trinity; but he 
expresses an approbation of no other part of them 
than of the style. He tells Dr. Wharton,§ — 
" Though I do not approve the spirit of his (Mid- 
dleton's) books; mt-ihinks 'tis pity the world 
should lose so rare a thin«; as a orood writer." 
Whenever Gray writes to his friends on religious 
subjects, it is with uncommon seriousness, warmth, 
and piety. Even Walpole calls him " a violent 
enemy of atheists, such as he took Voltaire and 

* See Johnson's Life of Browne, vol. xii. p. 305 : he there 
speaks the language of wisdom, religion, and humanity, 
t See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 95. 
X See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 391. 
§ See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 124. 



Ixiv LIFE OF GiiAl'. 

Hume to be." His sentiments on Shaftesbury 
and Bolingbroke are well known : and Mr. Ma- 
son* has very properly pointed out to the atten- 
tion of his readers, the scorn and contempt with 
w^hich he invariably mentions the works of those 
writers who endeavoured to disseminate the bane- 
fiil doctrines of infidelity. 

— " In conversation, H. Walpole t mentions, 
that Gray was so circumspect in his usual lan- 
guage, that it seemed unnatural, though it was 
only pure English." In a letter to G. Montagu 
he says, " I agree with you most absolutely in 
your opinion about Gray : he is tlie worst com- 
pany in the world. From a melancholy turn, 
from living reclusely, and from a little too much 
dignity, he never converses easily ; all his words 
are measured and chosen and formed into sen- 
tences. His writings are admirable, he himself is 
not agreeable :" and in another letter, " My Lady 
Ailesbury has been much diverted, and so will 
you too. Gray is in their neighbourhood. My 
Lady Carlisle says, he is extremely like me in his 
manner. They went a party to dine on a cold 
loaf, and passed the day. Lady A. protests he 
never opened his lips but once, and then only 
said, ' Yes, my Lady, I believe so.' "J Dr. Beat- 

* See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 210: and Walpoliana, 
vol. i. p. 95 ; and Mathias's Observations, p. 34-6. 
f See Walpule's Thoughts on Comedy, p. 332. 
X See Letters to G. Montagu, p. 53, 199. 



LIFE OF GRAY. IXV 

tie writes,* " Gray's letters very much resemble 
what his conversation was. He had none of the 
airs of either a scholar or a poet ; and though on 
those and all other subjects he spoke to me with 
the utmost freedom, and without any reserve, he 
was, in general company, much more silent than 
one could have wished." And in a letter to Sir 
William Forbes, he says, — "I am sorry you did 
not see Mr. Gray on his return : you would have 
been much pleased with him. Setting aside his 
merit as a poet, which, however, in my opinion, is 
greater than any of his contemporaries can boast, 
in this or any other nation ; I found him possest 
of the most exact taste, the soundest judgment, 
and the most extensive learning. He is happy 
in a singular facility of expression. His conver- 
sation abounds in original observations, delivered 
with no appearance of sententious formality, and 
seeming to arise spontaneously, without study or 
premeditation. I passed two very agreeable days 
with him at Glammis, and found him as easy in 
his manners, and as communicative and frank, 
as I could have wished." t 

" From my friend, the Rev. Mr. Sparrow, of 

* See Beattie's Letters to Sir W. Forbes, in the ' Life of 
Dr. Beattie,' vol. ii, 4to. p. 321. 

f " I once met Gray the Poet, when I was a boy, at old 
Mrs. Hamilton Campbell's, in Sackville Street, Piccadilly. He 
talked with great reserve, and seeming difficulty." — Claver- 
ing's Autubiog. in Mctrupolitau Mag., No. xiii. p, 157, 1832. 

f 



ixvi LIFE 01- GRAY. 

Pembroke College, who died at Walthanistow," 
(says Mr. Cradock,) " I obtained at times many 
specimens of Gray's peculiar humour. Gray's 
satire on Lord Holland's seat at Kingsgate, was 
at first denied to be his. When stories were told 
of Gray by those who knew him, they were 
thought so unlike, that several were imputed to 
Dr. Johnson, nay, were even printed among the 
Johnsonia, which Mr. Boswell says, tlie Doctor 
was much offended at. I can give one strong in- 
stance : Di . Johnson is made to reply to some 
impudent man, ' that in that face the north-west 
wind would have the worst of it.' Now, the trutii 
was this: some friends of mine were educated at 
Christ's Hospital, and went from thence to Pem- 
broke Hall, in Cambridge, where Gray then 
resided; one of them was rather a favourite of 
Gray, but to* another he had taken a particu- 
lar dislike. Standing by the fire in the Hall, 
the offensive gentleman, who was then curate of 
Newmarket, thus addressed the celebrated poet; 
*Mr. Gray, I have just rode from Newmarket, 
and never was so cut in my life, the north-west 
wind was full in my face.' Gray, turning to the 
Rev. Mr. Sparrow, said, ' I think in that face the 
north-west wind would have the worst of it.' This 
I had from Mr. Sparrow. Again, it was the cus- 
tom at Cambridge, when a book was ordered at a 
coffee-house, that four subscribers' names should 
be previously sip;ned. The voung men, knowing 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixvii 

that Mr. Figot wished to be particidarly thought 
to be the intimate of Gray, and IMr. Gray eciually 
wished not to be considered as the intimate of Mr. 
Pigot, so contrived it, that Gray expressed his 
anger, that wherever he wrote his name, tlie next 
was erased, and Mr. Pigot's inserted in its stead ; 
and, according to his peculiar hmnoiir, he said to 
my friend, ' That man's name wherever I go, 
piget, he Pigofs me.' This was true, but could 
not then be crediteth"* 

To record the trifling and minute peculiarities 
of manners, unless they reflect considerable light 
upon the character which is delineated, does not 
seem to be a necessary part of the duty of a bio- 
grapher. The little and singular habits of beha- 
viour which are gradually formed in the seclusion 
of a studious life, are not always viewed in a just 
light, and without prejudice, by our contempo- 
raries ; and at a distance of time they are neces- 
sarily represented without those nice but discri- 
minating touches that belong to them; and ar.^ 
stripped of that connection of circumstances, with 
which they can alone be painted with justness a)id 
precision. Some few observations, however, of 
this nature, made by the friends of Gray, I have 
placed in this edition, without presuming myself 
to make any remarks on their correctness : but I 
have great pleasure in adding a slight sketch of 
his character, drawn by a contemporary poet, the 

* iScc Ciadook's AliiiDuirs, vui. iv. p. 22(J. 



Ixviii LlFli OK GiJAY. 

late translator of -/Eschylus.* — "If there is a wri- 
ter (says Mr. Potter) who more than others has a 
chiim to be exempted from his [Dr. Johnson's] 
petulance, Mr. Gray has that claim. His own po- 
lished manners restrained him from ever giving 
offence to any good man ; his warm and cheerful 
benevolence endeared him to all his friends ; 
though he lived long in a college, he lived not 
sullenly there, but in a liberal intercourse with the 
wisest and most virtuous men of his time. He 
was perhaps the most learned man of the age, but 
his mind never contracted the rust of pedantry. 
He had too good an understanding to neglect that 
urbanity which renders society pleasing : his con- 
versation was instructing, elegant, and agreeable. 
Superior knowledge, an exquisite taste in the fine 
arts, and, above all, purity of morals, and an unaf- 
fected reverence for religion, made this excellent 
person an ornament to society, and an honour to 
human nature." 

Soon after Lhe death of Gray, a sketch of his 
character was drawn up by tlie Rev. Mr. Temple.f 

* See Inquiry into some Passages in Dr. .Johnson's Lives 
of the Poets, particularly his Observations on L3'ric Poetry, 
and the Odes of Grray; by R. Potter, 4to. 1783. 

t William Johnson Temple, LL.B., of Trinity-Hall, Cam- 
bridge, 17G6, formerly rector of Mamhead, Devon, to which 
he was presented by the Earl of Lisburne ; and exchanged it 
for St. (rluvias. He published an Essay on the Clergy, their 
Studies, Recreations, Doctrines, Influence, Ac, 1774, 8vo. See 
Annual Register, 170G, p. 04. He al^u published 'Historieal 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixix 

This account has been adopted both by Mr. Ma- 
son and Dr. Johnson : it was considered by the 
former to be an impartial summary of its charac- 
ter, and it seems therefore not improper to intro- 
duce it into this narrative ; though I must confess 
that, in my own opinion, it appears to be defective 
in several material points ; nor is it sketched in 
that masterly and decisive manner, that leaves a 
fuller likeness scarcely to be desired. Its promi- 
nent defect however is, that it has thrown into the 
back-ground the peculiar and distinguishing fea- 
tures of the mind of Gray; — I mean his poetical 
invention, and his rich and splendid imagination ; 
—while it is too exclusively confined in detailing 
the produce of his studies, and the extent of his 
acquired knowledge. Nor is any mention made 
in this portrait of his mental character, of that 
talent of humour* which he possessed in a very 

and Political Memoirs,' 8vo. ; and « On tlie Abuses of Unre- 
strained Power, an Historical Essay,' 1778, 8vo. He died 
August 8, 1796. This character of Gray originally appeared 
in the London Ma,Tizine for March 1772. " I never saw Mr. 
Gray, but ray o\l and most intimate friend the Rev. Mr. 
Temple knew hiai vvell ; he knew his foibles, but admired his 
genius, and esteemed his virtues. I know not if you was 
acquainted witn Mr. Gray. He was so abstracted and singular 
a man, that I can suppose you and him never to have met." 
Boswell to Garrick, v. Garrick's Corresp. i. 435 ; see also 
Polwhele's Traditions and Recollections, vol. i. p. 327, where 
is a Letter by Mr. Temple. 

* See some observations on this subject in Mason's Me- 
moirs of Gray, vol. iii. p. 127. 



IXX LIFE OF GRAY. 

considerable degree ; and whicli was displayed, 
both in his conversation and correspondence. 
Lord Orford used to assert, "that Gray .never 
wrote any thing easily, but things of humour ; " 
and added, "that humour was his natural and 
original turn." Mr. Hey mentions Gray as ex- 
celling in delicate and well-bred ridicule.* A late 
writer (Dr. Campbell) has remarked "the trans- 
cendant excellence of Shakspeare in the province 
of humour^ as well as in the pathetic ;''^ '\ and I 
have elsewhere had occasion to observe, how 
strongly the bent of Gray's mind inclined towards 
this latter quality of composition ; and with what 
distinguishing features it appears in his poetry. 
The examples of these two eminent writers whom 
I have mentioned, appears sufhciently to streng- 
then the excellent observation made by Mr. D. 
Stewart, in a note to his Philosophical Essays 
^p. 584) : " that a talent for the pathetic, and a 
talent for humour, are generally united in the 
same person : wit^'' he observes, " is more nearly 
allied to a taste for the sublime J^ 

To return, however, to the observations of Mr. 
Temple : — " Perhaps (he writes) Mr. Gray was 
the most learned man in Europe : he was equally 
acquainted with the elegant and profound parts of 
science, and that, not superficially, but thoroughly. 

* See Hey's Lectures, vol. i. p. 455 ; see Mason on Gray's 
Humour, vol. iii. p. 127, of his Memoirs. 

f See * Philosophy of Rhetoric,' vol. i. p. 57. 



LIFE OF GFiAY. IxXl 

He knew every branch of history both natural and 
civil ; had read all the original historians of Eng- 
land, France, and Italy ; and was a great anti- 
quarian. Criticism, metaphysics, morals, politics,* 
made a principal part of his study. Voyages and 
Travels of all sorts were his favourite amuse- 
ments ; and he had a fine taste in painting, prints, 
architecture, and gardening.f With such a fund 
of knowledge, his conversation must have been 

* How comprehensive the account is, which Mr. Temple 
gives of the studies of Grray, which embraced criticism, me- 
taphysics, morals, and politics, may be seen by comparing it 
with the following passage of Hume, as quoted by Mr. D. 
Stewart in his Life <f Reid, p. Iviii. " In these four sciences, 
of logic, (which is here meant, says Mr. Stewart, as that 
science which explains the principles and operations of our 
reasoning faculty, and the nature of our ideas,) morals, cri- 
ticism, and politics, is comprehended almost every thing 
which it can any way import us to be acquainted with ; or 
which can tend to the improvement or ornament of the human 
mind." 

t Mr. Mason says that Gray disclaimed any skill in gar- 
dening, arid held it in little estimation ; declaring himself to 
be only charmed with the bolder features of unadorned nature. 
See also in Mason's English Garden, book iii. 25, the speech 
which he puts into the mouth (if Gray, as agreeable to hia 
sentiments : 

" Sovereign queen ! — 

Behold, and tremble, while thou view'st her state 
Throned on the heights of Skiddaw : call thy art 
To build her such a throne ; that art will feel 
How vain her best pretensions ! trace her march 
Amid the purple crags of Borrow dale ; 
And try like those, to pile thy range of rock. 
In rude tumultuous chaos ' " 



Ixxii LIFE OF GRAY. 

equally instructing and entertaining. But he was 
also a good man, a man of virtue and humanity. 
There is no character without some speck, some 
imperfection ; and I think the greatest defect in 
his, was an affectation in delicacy* or rather ef- 
feminacy, and a visible fastidiousness or contempt 
and disdain of his inferiors in science. He also 
had in some degree that weakness which disgusted 
Voltaire so much in Congreve. Though he seemed 
to value others chiefly according to the progress 
they had made in knowledge, yet he could not bear 
to be considered merely as a man of letters : and 
though without birth, or fortune, or station, his de- 
sire was to be looked upon as a j^rivate indepen- 
dent gentleman, who read for his amusement. 
Perhaps it may be said, What signifies so much 
knowledge, when it produced so little ? Is it worth 
taking so much pains, to leave no memorials but a 
few poems ? But let it be considered, that Mr. 

* Shenstone, in his Essays, (p. 248, > remarks " the de- 
licacy of Gray's manners : " and the editor of the Censura 
Literaria says, " I have learned from several who knew him 
intimately, that the sensibility of Gray was even morbid ; 
and often very fastidious, and troublesome to his friends. He 
seemed frequently overwhelmed by the ordinary intercourse, 
and ordinary aflfairs of life. Coarse manners, and vulgar, or 
unrefined sentiments overset him." Vol. v. p. 406. — But 
Mr. Mason says, " it was rather an affectation in delicacy and 
effeminacy, than the things themselves : and he chose to put 
on this appearance chiefly before persons whom he did not 
wish to please." See Memoirs, vol iv. p. 237 ; see Censura 
Literaria, vol. vii. p. 396. 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixxiil 

Gray was to others at least innocently employed ; 
to himself, certainly beneficially. His time passed 
agreeably ; he was every day making some new 
acquisition in science. His mind was enlarged, 
his heart softened, his virtue strengthened. The 
world and mankind were shown to him without a 
mask ; and he was taught to consider every thing 
as trifling, and unworthy the attention of a wise 
man, except the pursuit of knowledge, and prac- 
tice of virtue, in that state wherein God has 
placed us." 

To this account Mr. Mason has added more 
particularly, from the information of Mr. Tyson,* 
of Bene't College, that Gray's skill in zoology 
was extremely accurate. He had not only con- 
centrated in his Linnu3us, all that other writers 
had said, but had altered the style of the Swedish 
naturalist, to classical and elegant Latin. From 
modern writers he had also illustrated many diffi- 
cult passages in the zoological treatises of Aristo- 
tle. His account of English Insects was more 
perfect than any that had then appeared; and it 
has lately been mentioned,! " as a circumstance 

* This appears by a note in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, 
vol. vii. For an account of Tyson, see Brydges' Restituta, 
vol. iv. p. 236-9. I presume that he was the author of " Illu- 
minated MSS. in the Library of Christ. Coll. Camb. 1770, 4to." 

f See Shaw's Zoological Lectures, vol. i. p. 3. In tho 
library of the late Rev. George Ashby, of Barrow, was a copy 
of Linnaeus, 12th edit. 1766, interleaved, in 3 vols. 4to. with 
MS. notes and additions by Gray ; with drawings of shells. 



Ixxiv LIFE OF GRAY. 

not generally known, that he translated the Lin- 
nasan Genera, or Characters of Insects, into ele- 
gant Latin hexameters ; some specimens of which 
have been preserved by his friends, though they 
were never intended for publication." Sir J. Mac- 
kintosh very justly observes, in a letter which he 
addressed to the Bishop of Landaff: — "In the 
beautiful scenery of Bolton Abbey, where I have 
been since I began this note, I was struck by the 
recollection of a sort of merit of Gray, which is 
not generally observed — that he was the first dis- 
coverer of the beauties of nature in England, and 
has marked out the course of every picturesque 
journey that can be made in it." * 

Botany, which he studied in early life, under 
the direction of his uncle, Mr. Antrobus, formed 
also the amusement and pursuit of his later years. 
He made frequent experiments on flowers, to 
mark the mode and progress of their vegetation. 
" For many of the latter yeai's of his life (says 
Mr. Cole), Gray dedicated his hours to the study 
of Botany ; in which he was eminently conspi- 

&c. Another copy of Linnaeus, in the same library, included 
a few Ornithological papers in the handwriting of (xray, which 
I now possess ; and which serve as an additional proof of the 
accuracy and minuteness with which he prosecuted that branch 
of his studies in natural history. — Since this note was ori- 
ginally written, extracts from these works have been pub- 
lished in the edition of Mr. Mathias. See vol. ii. 548 ti 
580. 

* See Life of Sir J. Mackintosh, vol. ii. p. 427. 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixi, / 

cuous. He Lad Linnasus's "Works interleaved, al- 
ways before liim, when I have accidentally called 
upon him." His knowledge of architecture has 
been mentioned before. Mr. Mason says, that 
while Gray was abroad, he studied the Roman 
proportions both in ancient ruins, and in the works 
of Palladio. In his later years, he applied him- 
self to Gothic and Saxon architecture, with such 
industry and sagacity, that he could, at first sight, 
pronounce on the precise time when any particu- 
lar part of our cathedrals was erected. For this 
purpose he trusted less to written accounts and 
books, than to the internal evidence of the build- 
ings themselves. He invented also several terms 
of art, the better to explain his meaning on this 
subject. Of heraldry, to which he applied as a 
preparatory science, he was a complete master, 
and left behind him many curious genealogical 
papers. " After what I have said of Gray, (I 
use the words of the Rev. Mr. Cole,) in respect 
to the beauty and elegance of his poetical com- 
positions, it will hardly be believed, that he con- 
descended to look into the study of antiquities. 
Yet he told me that he was deeply read in Dug- 
dale, Hearne, Spelman, and others of that class ; 
and that he took as much delight in that study, 
as ever he did in any other. Indeed, I myself 
saw many specimens of his industry in his collec- 
tions from various manuscripts in the Britislj 
Museum. His collections related chiefly to Eiig- 



Ixxvi LIFE OF GRAY. 

lish history little known, or falsified by our his- 
torians, and some pedigrees." * His taste in 
music was excellent, and formed on the study of 
the great Italian masters who flourished about 
the time of Pergolesi,t as Marcello, Leo, and 
Palestrina ; he himself performed upon the harp- 
sichord. And it is said that he sung to his own 
accompaniment on that instrument, with great 
taste, and feeling.j Vocal music, and that only, 
was what he chiefly regarded. Gray acquired 
also great facility and accuracy in the knowledge 
of painting. When he was in Italy, he drew 
up a paper containing several subjects proper 
for painting, which he had never seen executed : 

* " You know how out of humor Gray has been about our 
diverting ourselves with pedigrees, which is at least as wise 
as making a serious point of haranguing against the study. * * 
Well, Gray has set himself to compute, and has found out that 
there must go a million of ancestors in twenty generations, to 
every body's composition." Walpole's Lett, to G. Montagu, 
p. 70. 

f Gray was not partial to the music of Handel : but Mr. 
Price (from whom I derive this information) adds, " that he 
used to speak with wonder of that Chorus in the Oratorio of 
Jephtha, beginning, — ' No more to Ammon's God and King.' " 
— See ' Essays on the Picturesque,' vol. ii. p. 191, note ; ed. 
1794, and Cradock's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 125. Mr. R. Narea 
says, — ' The Oratorio of the Messiah is as perfect a composition 
of the kind, as the faculties of human nature are capable of 
producing.' 

:{: Cole, in his MSS. notes, says " Gray latterly played on 
the pianoforte, and sang to him, but not without solicitation." 
MS. Note of Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, 



LIFK (Jl- (JKAV. IxXVii 

and affixed the names* of different masters to 
each piece, to show which of their pencils he 
thought would be most proper to treat it. A cu- 
rious List of Painters, from the Revival of the 
Art, to the Beginning of the last Century, was 
also formed by him, with great accuracy and at- 
tention. It was published for the first time, in 
Mr. Malone's edition of the Works of Sir Joshua 
Reynolds ; f and has been lately reprinted among 
the collected productions of Mr. Mason. In his 
Anecdotes of Painting, H. Walpole owns himself 
much indebted to Gray, for information both in 
architecture and painting.^ " He condescended 
to correct (he says) what he never would have 
condescended to write:" again, "I am come to 
put my Anecdotes of Painting into the Press. 
You are one of the few that I expect will be en- 
tertained with it. It has warmed Gray's coldness 
so much, that he is violent about it." And to him 
was owing the discovery of a valuable artist in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, whose name was Theo- 
dore Haveus, for some time employed at Caius- 
CoUege, II at Cambridge ; who was at once an 

* See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 98. 

f See Sir J. Reynolds's Works, vol. iii, p. 293 ; and Mr. 
Mason's Works, vol. iii. p. 227. 

X See Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, p. 99 and 141 ; and 
Letters to G. Montagu, p. 226. 

!| " In Caius-CuUege, is a good portrait on board of Dr. 
Keys (not in profile), undoubtedly original, and dated 1563, 
lit'tatis sua} 53 ; with Latin verses and mott.os : and in the same 



IxXViii LIFE OF GRAir. 

architect, sculptor, and painter; and who pos- 
sessed that diversity, as well as depth of talent in 
the arts, which appeared in such extraordinary 
splendour at the revival of literature, but of which, 
I believe, we have no instance recorded in the 
history of ancient times.* 

To the papers of Gray, the late Mr. Pennant 
owned himself much indebted for many correc- 
tions and observations on the antiquities of Lon- 
don.t Indeed, the variety and extreme accuracy 
of his studies, even considering the leisure wliich 

room hangs an old picture (bad at first, and now almost effaced 
by cleaning), of a man in a slashed doublet, dark curled hair, 
and beard, looking like a foreigner, and holding a pair of 
compasses, and bj' his side a polyedron, composed of twelve 
pentagons. This is undoubtedly Theodore Haveus himself, 
who, from all these circumstances, seems to have been an 
architect, sculptor, and painter ; and having worked many 
years for Dr. Caius and the College, in gratitude left behind 
him his own picture." Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, p. 
143, 4to. 

* Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Julio Romano were 
architects and I believe sculptors, as well as painters; but it 
was reserved for the genius of Michael Angelo, to add to the 
most profound knowledge of those arts, the mind and the 
expression of the poet. "When Dr. Warton, in his Essay on 
Pope (vol. i. p. 157), said that he could not recollect any 
painters that were good poets, except SaJvator Rosa, and 
Charles Vermander, of Mulbrac, in Flanders ; he surely did 
not mean to except the poetry of this most extraordinary man 
Pliny, in his Natural History, mentions the names of some 
ancient artists who were philosophers : see lib. xxxv. c. 10, 11. 

t See Pennant's ' Loudon,' p. {,'1, 4to. Mr. Pennant had 
the use of an interleaved copy of ' London and its Environs,' 



LIFE OF GilAY. Ixxix 

he possessed, is not a little surprising ; and though 
lie published little or nothing, his reputation for 
extensive learning was thoroughly established. 
Retinuii famam, sine experimento. " Excepting 
pure mathematics (says Mr. Mason), and the stu- 
dies dependent on that science, there was hardly 
any part of human learning in which he had not 
acquired a competent skill ; in most of them, a 
consummate mastery." He followed most impli- 
citly the rule, which he so often inculcated to his 
friends,* that happiness consists in employment. 
" To find one's self business (he writes) I am 
persuaded is the great art of life. I am never so 
angry as when I hear my acquaintance wishing 
they had been bred to some poking profession, or 
emj)loyed in some othce of drudgery ; as if it were 
[)leasanter to be at the command of other people, 
than at one's own; aiid as if they could not go, 
unless they were wound up : yet I know and feel 
what they mean by tliis complaint ; it proves that 
ftorrie spirit, something of genius (more than com- 



witb notes by Mr. Gray, which is in Lord Harcourt's posses- 
sion. The Witch of Woiiy, a Poem by Dr. Harringtiu, was 
published in Percy's Pteliques ; it was given to the Public 
with a note — that it had been altered by the celebrated Gray^ 
author of the Churchyard Elegy. See Annual Biog. and 
Obituary, 1817, p. 409. 

* See Walpole's Works, vol. v. p. 398, Lett. XT. And 
Mason's Memoirs, vol. iv. p. 17, Lett. XXV.; and p. 53, Lett. 
XXXVI., to Dr. W^harton. 



fxXX LIFE OK GllAT. 

mon) is required to teach a man how to employ 
himself." 

With regard to Classical learning, there seems 
every reason to suppose that he was a profound, 
as well as an elegant scholar. He thought once, 
it is said, of publishing an edition of Strabo, and 
left behind him many copious notes, and curious 
geographical disquisitions, particularly with re- 
spect to Persia and India. He made a selection 
from the Anthologia Grgeca, inserting critical 
emendations and additional epigrams, besides a 
copious index.* On Plato (Mr. Mason says) he 
bestowed indefatigable pains ; leaving a quantity 
of critical and explanatory notes on almost every 
part of his works. These notes have now been 
published f in the edition of Mr. Mathias, and 
they are fully sufficient to shew the respect and 
attention with which he studied the writings of 
that great philosopher. They relate chiefly to 
antiquity and history ; whetlier he attended much 

* A Transcript of this work on the Anthologia by Mr. 
Mathias, was in the possession of Mr. Heber, at the sale of 
whose Library it was purchased by Mr. Pickering. There is 
very little original matter in it, cunsisting of a lew translations 
in Latin verse : but the Selection of the Epigrauimata is made 
with Gray's judgment and fine taste. 

t Some notes on the l6w of Plato, by Thomas G-ray, were 
published in the ' Musan Oxoniensis Literarii Conspectus,' 
Fasc. ii. p. 39 — 48 ; a publication which was conducted by the 
present Bishop af St. David's, and which consists of three 
numbers. " Grayii (sayt; tiie ctlitur) poeta* celeberrimi, ob- 



LIFE OF GRAY. Ixxxi 

to verbal criticism, either in the Greek or Latin 
language, does not appear. I should be inclined 
to think, that he read the ancient writers, not so 
much as a critic, but with the more extended, and 
ampler views of the historian and the philoso- 
pher ; and all that was in any way connected with 
the fine arts, with the poetry, the philosophy, and 
the history of Greece and Rome, he studied with 
attention ; and some of the authors whom he pe- 
rused, could only be relished by one, who pos- 
sessed an intimate and copious knowledge of the 
language in which they wrote. How far Mr. 
Mathias may have consulted the reputation of 
Gray, in the extracts which he has lately made 
from the manuscripts at Pembroke, the voice of 
the public will decide. In the meanwhile, I 
cannot but observe, that so far as regards the 
observations on English metre, the remarks on 

servationes in Platonis lonem, pro liberalitate suk, mihi descri- 
bendas benignissime permisit poeta celeberrimus, Gulielmus 
Mason. Bxcerptse sunt e spisso volumine Grayii observatio- 
rium ineditarum in nniversa Platonis Opera, in Strabonem, et 
Geograpbos antiques, in vetustissimos Poetas Anglicos, in 
Ecclesias Catbedrales Angliae, &g. scriptarum magna erudi- 
tione, summa diligentia, rare ingenio et judicio aori, ita ut 
poeta ille cultissimus in vatum eruditorum numero, unk cum 
MiltoDO, merito censeri queat. Observationes in lonem quan- 
quam paucae sint, doctrinae ubertatera produnt, et judicii 
acumen. Ex his, quidem nonnuUai de rebus baud obscuria 
dictse videantur ; pauci tamen homines de aliqua re admoneri 
dedignabuntur, quam sui gratia notatu dignam putavit Gray- 
ius." 



IXXXU LIFE OF Gil AY. 

Lyclgate, the excellent and highly entertaming 
imalysis of the Aves of Aristophanes, and the 
English and Latin translations, there surely can 
be but one sentiment of approbation and grati- 
tude. I confess that, if I had been placed in the 
situation of the editor, I should have hesitated 
most, as to the propriety of publishing the notes 
on Aristophanes, and the geographical disquisi- 
tions on India. 

It is not, I believe, generally known, that Gray 
assisted Ross * (the editor of the Epistola3 Fami- 
liares of Cicero, with English notes) in an anony- 
mous pamphlet t which he published against the 
Criticisms of Markland, on some of the Epistles 

* See the Selections from the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 
iv. p. 392. In the miscellaneous Tracts of Bowyer, 4to. are 
many letters of Markland, shewing great contempt for a per- 
son, whose name is not mentioned. — This was Ross. See p. 
573, 574, 576, &c. The letters at p. 575, 518, dated June 20, 
1749, and June 14th, 1756, which speak in severe terms of a 
book then published, relate, I believe, to Kurd's Horace. 

f The title of this pamphlet is, ' A Dissertation in which 
the Defence of P. Sylla, ascribed to M. Tullius' Cicero, is 
clearly proved to be spurious, after the manner of Mr. Mark- 
land ; 'with some introductory Remarks on other Writings of 
the Ancients, never before suspected.' It is written in a 
sarcastic style, against Markland ; but with a display of 
learning very inferior to that of the excellent scholar against 
whom it was directed, and in a disposition very dissimilar to 
the candour and fairness which accompanied the writings of 
Markland. In a MS. note in the first leaf of his copy of Mark- 
land, Gray writes : — " This book is written in an ingeniou? 
way, but the irony not quite transparent." 



LIFE OF GllAY. IxxX-iil 

and Orations of Cicero. Gray's own copy of 
Markland's Treatise is now before me. The 
notes which he has written in it, display a 
familiar knowledge of the structure of the Latin 
language, and answer some of the objections of 
that ingenious critic; who had not then learnt 
the caution, in verbal criticism and conjectural 
emendation, Avhich he well knew how to value, 
when an editor of Euripides.* 

* In 1741, Orator Tunstall (with some assistance from 
Markland) published his doubts of the authenticity of the 
letters between Cicero and Brutus (which Middleton had con- 
sidered as genuine in his Life of Cicero), in a Latin Dis- 
sertation. This Middleton called, " a frivolous, captious, 
disingenuous piece of criticism ;" answered it in English, and 
published the disputed epistles with a translation. Upon this. 
Orator Tunstall, in 1744, published his ' Observations on the 
Epistles, representing several evident marks of forgery in 
them, in answer to the late pretences of the Rev. Dr. Conyers 
Middleton.' Markland, in 1745, published his arguments on 
the same side of the question, adding a Dissertation on four 
Orations ascribed to Cicero, viz. 1. Ad Quirites post reditum. 
2. Post reditum in Senatu. 3. Pro Dome sua, ad Pontifices. 
4. De Haruspicum Responsis. This called forth the pamphlet 
from Ross, I believe, in the following year, but the book has 
no date. This controversy was continued by a ' Dissertation, 
in which the Observations of a late Pamphlet on the Writings 
of the Ancients, after the Manner of Mr. Markland, are 
clearly answered ; those Passages in Tully corrected, on 
which some of the Objections are founded ; with Amendments 
of a few Pieces o? Criticism in Mr. Markland's Epistola Cri- 
tica. London, 1746, 8vo.' Gesner published some Strictures 
on Markland in the Comm. Acad. Reg. Getting, t. iii. 223 — 
284 : which Wolf wonders Markland did not answer; as he 
had blown his pipes louder than Tunstall. Saxius mistakes 



IxXXiv LIFE OF GRAY. 

Id the Latin poems of Gray,* some errors have 
been pointed out in the notes. One or two of 
them are evidently mistakes arising from haste ; 
and the others do not at all derogate from the 
reputation which he has acquired for his classical 
attainments, and the elegance and purity of his 
compositions. Salmasius discovered some mis- 
takes in quantity, among the poems of Milton, 
when they first appeared; and Vavassorf de- 
tected many inaccuracies in metre and grammar, 
in the poetical volume published by Beza. The 
Latin poems of Buchanan, beautiful and classical 
as they are in their spirit and language, are not 
without defects both of grammar and of prosody. 
Indeed some faults + of this kind are certainly not 
inexcusable, when composing in a language not 

Ross's pamphlet for a serious one; and says that tie attacks 
Cioero's Oration pro Sulla " Harduinin& paene licentik " 

* In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1801, vol. Ixxi, p. 591, 
is a letter from a Mr. Edmund C. Mason, Sheffield, relating 
an anecdote of Gray, and containing a I^atin poem, which ho 
says is the production of the poet ; and a Greek translation 
of it, by West. This gentleman, however, has not given any 
account of the authenticity of his manuscript. 

•f- See Scaligeriana; art.: Bai'clay and Beza. See Irvine's 
Lives of the Scottish Poets, v. i. p. 164. 

X Mr. Mason says, " A learned and ingenious person, to 
whom I communicated the Latin poems after they were printed 
off, was of opinion that they contain some few expressions not 
warranted by any good authority; and that there are one or 
two false quantities to be found in them. I had once an in- 
tention to cancel the pages, and correct the passages objected 
to, according to my friend's criticisms ; but, on second 



LIFE OF GRAY. IxXXV 

our own. Graj's Latin poetry, however, appears 
to me to be peculiarly forcible and correct ; and 
formed attentively after the best models — Virgil 
and Lucretius. Dr. Johnson, who was a good 
judge of the purity of Latin composition (although 
he did not always himself compose with that clas- 
sical exactness which may be desired), allowed, 
" that it were reasonable to wish Gray had pro- 
secuted his design of excelling in Latin poetry ; 
for though there is at present some embarrass- 
ment in his phrase, and some harshness in his 
lyric numbers, his copiousness of language is such 
as very few possess ; and his lines, even when im- 
perfect, discover a writer whom practice would 
have made skilful." If Gray, however, should 
need any further defence, it must be observed, 
that his Latin poems were never intended by him 
for publication, if we except the two that he wrote 
at College ; that they were found by his executors 
among his own papers, or those of his friends, 
and that they did not receive his last correc- 
tions.* 

thoughts, I deemed it best to let them stand exactly as I 
found them in the manuscripts. The accurate classical reader 
will perhaps be best pleased with finding out the faulty pas- 
sages himself ; and his candour will easily make the proper 
allowances for any little mistakes in verses, which, he will 
eonsider, never had the author's last hand." Memoirs, vol. iv. 
p. 234. 

* The ode written at the Grande Chartreuse perhops ought 
ilso to be excepted. 



IXXXVl LIFE or GRAY. 

I have never understood that his knowledge of 
modern languages extended beyond the French 
and Italian : these, however, he studied when he 
was abroad with considerable diligence, and cul- 
tivated afterwards, in the leisure which he en- 
joyed at home. Indeed his acquaintance with 
the beautiful works of the Tuscan bards, has 
contributed, in no small degree, to enrich and 
adorn many passages of his English poetry : — 

*' Dum vagus, Ausonias nunc per umbras, 
Nunc Britannica per vireta lusit." 

It remains now only to speak of an intended 
publication in English literature, mentioned by 
Gray in an advertisement to the Imitation of the 
"Welsh Odes, and which was an ' History of Eng- 
lish Poetry.' It appears that Warburton had 
communicated to Mason a paper of Pope's, con- 
taining the first sketch of a plan for a work of 
that nature, and which was printed in the Life 
of Pope by Ruffhead, and subsequently in many 
other works. 

" Milton (says Dryden in the preface to his 
Fables) was the poetical son of Spenser, and Mr. 
"Waller of Fairfax ; for we have our lineal des- 
cents and clans as well as other families." Upon 
this principle, Pope * drew up his little catalogue 

* Pope observed to Spence that " Michael Drayton was 
one of the imitators of Spenser, and Fairfax another. Milton 
in his first pieces, is an evident follower of Spenser too, in hie 
famous Allegro and Penseroso, and some others. Carew (a 



LIFE OF GRAY. IxXXVii 

of the English poets ; * and Gray was so much 
pleased with the method of arrangement which 
Pope had struck out, that on Mr. Mason's agree- 
ing to assist him, he examined and considerably 
enlarged the plan. He meant in the introduction 
to ascertain the Origin of Rhyme ; to give speci- 
mens of the Provencal Scaldic, British, and Sax- 
on poetry : and when the different sources of 
English poetry were ascertained, the history was 



bad Waller), Waller himself and Lord Lansdown are all of 
one school ; as Sir John Suckling, Sir John Minnes, and Prior 
are of another. Crashaw is a coarse sort of Cowley ; he was 
a follower too of Petrarch and Marino, but most of Marino. 
He and Cowley were good fiiends ; and the latter has a good 
copy, of verses on his death. About this pitch were Stanley 
(the author of the Opinions of Philosophers) ; Randolph, 
though rather superior ; and Sylvester, though rather of a 
lower form. Cartwright and Bishop Corbet are of this class 
of poets ; and Ruggle, the author of Counter-Scuffle, might 
be admitted among them. Herbert is lower than Crashaw, 
Sir John Beaumont higher, and Donne a good deal so." [Ppenee's 
Anecdotes, quoted in] Malone's Dryden, vol. iv. p. 589. 

* I have placed Pope's Catalogue of the Poets in the 
Appendix D. (with Grray's Letter on the same subject), with 
some observations upon it. It is singular that this sketch of 
Pope's should have been so often printed, without any of tlie 
editors, except Mr. Malone, pointing out its mistakes and 
inaccuracies. It disagrees also, in many points, with the 
account which he gave to Spence; printed in the preceding 
note. I must observe, that this catalogue is printed by Mr 
Mathias, in a far more correct manner, than that in which it 
usually appears. It is published by him from Gray's own 
handwriting ; aftid many of the inaccuracies pointed out by 
Mr. Malone, are only the blunders of printers and transcribers. 



IxXXViii LIFE OF GRAY. 

to commence with the school of Chaucer. Mi. 
Mason collected but few materials for this pur- 
pose ; but Gray, besides writing his imitations of 
"Norse and Welsh poetry, made many curious 
and elaborate disquisitions into the origin of 
rhyme, and the variety of metre to be found in 
the ancient poets. He transcribed many pas- 
sages from Lydgate, from the manuscripts which 
he found at Cambridge, remarking the beauties 
and defects of this immediate scholar of Chau- 
cer.* 

About this time, however, T. Warton was en- 
gaged in a work of the same nature : and Gray, 
fatigued with the extent of his plan, relinquished 
his undertaking, and sent a copy of his design 
to Warton ; of whose abilities, from his observa- 
tions on Spenser, Mr. Mason says, he entertained 
a high opinion. It is well known, that Warton 
did not adopt this plan ; and gave his reasons for 
his departure from it, in the preface to his his- 
tory. Gray died some years before Warton's 
publication appeared ; t but Mr. Mason mentions 
it with praise, in a note in the fourth volume of 
his Memoirs of Gray, where he calls it, " a work, 
which, as the author proceeds in it through more 
enlightened periods, will undoubtedly give the 

* See Mathias' Edition of Gray, vol. ii. p. 1 to p. 80. 

t Grray died in July, 1771, and Warton's first volume ap 
peared in 1774. 



lAh'L Ob- GRAY. Ixxxix 

world as high an idea of his critical tast(3, as the 
present specimen does of his indefatigable re- 
searches into antiquity." 

Sir James Mackintosh has given a sketch of 
Gray's poetical character with his usual tempe- 
rance of judgment, and delicacy of taste, which 
may with propriety be introduced, as our narra,- 
tive is drawing to a close. " Gray (he writes, after 
some observations on the merits of Goldsmith) 
was a Poet of a far higher order, and of an almost 
opposite kind of merit. Of all English Poets he 
was the most finished artist. He attained the 
highest degree of splendour of which poetical 
style seems to be capable. If Virgil and his 
scholar Racine may be allowed to have united 
somewhat more ease with their elegance, no other 
poet approaches Gray in this kind of excellence. 
The degree of poetical invention diffused over 
such a style, the balance of taste and of fancy ne- 
cessary to produce it, and the art with which the 
offensive boldness of imagery is polished away, 
are not indeed always perceptible to the common 
reader, nor do they convey to any mind the same 
species of gratification, which is felt from the pe- 
rusal of those poems, which seem to be the unpre- 
meditated effusions of enthusiasm. But to the 
eye of the critic, and more especially to the artist, 
they afford a new kind of pleasure, not incompati 
ble with a distinct perception of the art employed, 
and somewhat similar to the grand emotions ex- 



XC LIFE OF GRAY. 

cited by the reflection on the skill and toil exerted 
in the construction of a magnificent palace. They 
can only be classed among the secondary plea- 
sures of poetry, but they never can exist without 
a great degree of its higher excellencies. Almost 
all his poetry was lyrical — that species which, 
issuing from a mind in the highest state of excite- 
ment, requires an intensity of feeling which, for a 
long composition, the genius of no poet could sup- 
port. Those who complained of its brevity and 
rapidity, only confessed their own inability to fol- 
low the movements of poetical inspiration * Of 
the two grand attributes of the Ode, Dryden had 
displayed the enthusiasm, Gray exhibited the 
magnificence. He is also the only modern Eng- 
lish writer whose Latin verses deserve general 
notice, but we must lament that such difficult 
trifles had diverted his genius from its natural ob- 
jects. In his Letters he has shewn the descrip- 
tive powers of a poet, and in new combinations of 
generally familiar words, which he seems to have 

* Id another place, the same writer observes ; " The ob- 
scurity of the Ode on the < Progress of Poetry,' arises from 
the variety of the subjects, the rapidity of the transitions, the 
boldness of the imagery, and the splendour of the language; 
to those who are capable of that intense attention, which the 
higher order of poetry requires, and which poetical sensibility 
always produces, there is no obscurity. In the ' Bard ' some 
of these causes of obscurity are lessened ; it is more impas- 
sioned and less magnificent, but it has more brevity and abrupt- 
ness. It is a lyric drama, and this structure is a new source 
of obscurity." 



LIFE OF URAT. XCl 

caught from Madame de Sevigne, (though it must 
be said he was somewhat quaint) he was emi- 
nently happy. It may be added, that he deserves 
the comparatively trifling praise of having been 
the most learned poet* since Milton." f 

In the short, and I am afraid, imperfect ac- 
count which I have now given of the life and 
character of Gray, I may be permitted, before I 
close the narrative, to express my own sincere 
admiration of that spier iid genius, that exquisite 
taste, that profound and extensive erudition, those 
numerous accomplishments, and those real and 
unassuming merits, which will preserve for him 
a very eminent reputation, exclusively of that 
which he so justly enjoys in his rank among the 
English poets. His life, indeed, did not abound 
with chanoje of incident, or varietv of situation ; 
it was not blessed with the happiness of domestic 
endearments, nor spent in the bosom of social 
intercourse ; but it was constantly and contentedly 

* Gray and Mason first detected the imposition of Chatter- 
t m. See Archteological Epistle to Dean Milles, Stanza xi. Tt 
appears that Gray did not admire Hudibras. " Mr. Gray," 
says Warburton, " has certainly a true taste. I should have 
read Hudibras with as much indifference as perhaps he did, 
were it not for a fondness of the transactions of those times, 
against which it is a satire." — Warburton's Letters, xxxi. 
p. 290. He appears highly to have praised some of W. White- 
head's poems. See Mason's Life of Whitehead, p. 40, &c., 
and he approved H. Walpole's Tragedy of the Mysteriou? 
Mother. See Lett, to G. Montagu, p. 406. 

t See Life of Sir J. Mackintosh, vol. ii. p 172. 



XCU LIFE OF GRAY. 

employed in the improvement of tlie various 
talents with which he was so highly gifted ; in a 
sedulous cultivation both of the moral and intel- 
lectual powers ; in the study of wisdom, and in 
the practice of virtue. 

To present his poetry to the public, more cor- 
rectly than it has yet appeared, has been the 
design of this edition. And I am willing to hope, 
that I have made no unacceptable present to the 
literary world, in enabling them for the first time 
to read the genuine correspondence of Gray, in 
an enlarged as well as authentic form. Assured- 
ly, to some, his letters will not be less interesting 
than his poetry ; * and they will be read by all 
who are desirous of estimating, not only the 
variety of his learning, and the richness and 
playfulness of his fancy, but the excellence of 
his private character, the genuine goodness of his 
heart, his sound and serious views of life, and his 
warm and zealous affection towards his friends, f 

* ' I have been reading Gray's Woi'ks,' says Cowper, ' and 

think him sublime I once thought Swift's Letters the 

best that could be written, but I like Gray's better. His 
humour, or his wit, or whatever it is to be called, is never ill- 
natured or offensive, and yet I think equally poignant with 
the Dean's.' Hayley's Ed. 4to. vol. ii. p. 231. 

f [The letters here referred to are contained in the Aldiue 
edition of Gray's Works.] 



f^ 



APl*ENi)f^/ -^ 



Appendix A. 

I'HE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF 
THOMAS GRAY. 

Extracted from the Registry of the Prerogative Court of 
Canterbury. 

In the Name of God. Amen. I Thomas Gray of Pem- 
broke-Hall in the University of Cambridge, being of sound 
mind and in good health of body, yet ignorant how long 
these blessings may be indulged me, do make this my 
Last Will and Testament in manner and form following. 
First, I do desire that my body may be deposited in the 
vault, made by my late dear mother in the churchyard of 
Stoke-Pogeis, near Slough in Buckinghamshire, by her re- 
mains, in a coffin of seasoned oak, neither lined nor covered, 
and (unless it be very inconvenient) I could wish that one 
of my executoi's may see me laid in the grave, and distri- 
bute among such honest and industi'ious poor persons in the 
said parish as he thinks fit, the sum of ten pounds in charity. 
— Next, I give to George Williamson, estj. my second cousin 
by the father's side, now of Calcutta in Bengal, the sum of 
five hundred pounds reduced Bank annuities, now standing 
in my name. I give to Anna Lady Goring, also my second 
cousin by the father's side, of the county of Sussex, five 
hundred pounds reduced Bank annuities, and a pair of large 
blue and white old Japan china jars. Item, I give to Mary 
Antrobus of Cambridge, spinster, my second cousin by the 
mother's side, all that my freehold estate and bouse in the 



XCiV APPENDIX. 

parish of St. Michael, Cornhill, London, now let at the yearly 
rent of sixty-five pounds, and in the occupation of Mr. 
iNortgeth perfumer, provided that she pay, out of the said 
rent, by half-yearly payments, Mrs. Jane Ollilfe, my aunt, 
of Cam'oridge, widow, the sum uf twenty pounds per annum 
during her natural life ; and after the decease of the said 
Jane Oilitfe I give the said estate tu the said Mary Antrobus, 
to have aud to hold to her heirs and assigns for ever. Further; 
I bequeath to the said iMaiy Antrobus the sum t)f six hundred 
pounds new South-sea annuities, now standing in the joint 
names of Jane Ollilfe and Thomas Gray, but charged with 
the payment of five pounds per annum to Graves Stokely of 
Stoke-Pogeis, in the county of Bucks, which sum of six hun- 
dred pounds, after the decease of the said annuitant, does 
(by the will of Anna Rogers my late aunt) belong solely and 
entirely to me, together with all overplus of interest in the 
mean-time accruing. Further, if at -the time of my decease 
there shall be any arrear of salary due to me from his Majesty's 
Treasury, I give all such arrears to the said Mary Antrobus 
Item, I give to Mrs. Dorothy Comyns of Cambridge, my othei 
second cousin by the mother's side, the sums of six hundred 
pounds old South-sea annuities, of three hundred pounds foui 
per cent. Bank annuities consolidated, and of two hundred 
pounds three per cent. Bank annuities consolidated, all nov 
standing in my name. I give to Richard Stonehewer, esq 
one of his Majesty's Commissioners of Excise, the sum of fivt* 
hundred pounds reduced Bank annuities, and I beg hio 
acceptance of one of my diamond rings. I give to Dr. 
Thomas Wharton, of Old Park in the Bishoprick of Durham, 
five hundred pounds reduced Bank annuities, and desire him 
also to accept of one of my diamond rings. I give to my 
servant, Stephen Hempstead, the sum of fifty pounds reduced 
Bank annuities, and if he continues in my service to the time 
of my death I also give him all my wearing-apparel and 
linen. I give to my two cousins above-mentioned, Marji 
Antrobus and Dorothy Comyns, all my plate, watches, rings, 
china-ware, bed-lmen and table-linen, and the furniture of 
my chambers, at Cambridge, not otherwise bequeathed, to bo 
equally and amicably shared betAveen them. I give to the 
Reverend AVilliam Alason, precentor of Yorlc, all my books 
manuscripts, coins, music ]n-inted or wiitten, and papers of all 
kinds, to preserve or destroy at his own discretion. And aftei 
my just debts and the expenses of my funeral are discharged. 
all the residue of my personal estate, whatsoever, I do hereby 
give and bequeath to the said Reverend William Mason, and 
to the Reverend Mr. James Browne, President of Pembroke- 
Hall, Cambridge, to be equally divided between them, desir- 
ing them to apply the sum of two hundred pounds to an us« 



APPENDIX. XCV 

of charity concerning which I have already informed them. 
And I do hereby constitute and appoint them, the said AVil- 
liani Mason and James Browne, to be juint executors of this 
my Last Will and Testament. And if any relation of mine, 
or uther legatee, shall go about to molest or commence any 
suit against my said executors in the execution of their office, 
I do, as far as the law will permit me, hereby revoke and 
make void all such bequests or legacies as I had given to that 
person or persons, and give it to be divided between my said 
executors and residuary legatees, whose integrity and kindness 
I have so long experienced, and who can best judge of my 
true intention and meaning. In witness whereof I have 
hereunto set my hand and seal this 2d day of July, 1770. 

Tho. Gray. 

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said Thomas Gray, 
the testator, as and for his Last Will and Testament, in the 
presence of us, who in his presence and at his request, and in 
the presence of each other, have signed our names as witnesses 
hereto. Etchard Baker. 

Thomas Wilson. 
Joseph Turner. 

Proved at London the 12th of August, 1771, before the 
Worshipful Andrew Goitre Ducarel, Doctor of Laws and 
Surrogate, by the oaths of the Reverend William Mason, Clerk, 
Master of Arts, and the Reverend James Browne,* Clerk, Mas- 
ter of Arts, the executors to whom administration was granted, 
having been first- sworn duly to administer. 

John Stevens. ^ 

Henrt Stevens. > Deputy Registers. 

GrEO. GoSTLING, jun. J 



* Mr. Gray used to go with his friend Browne to a reading- 
room in the evening. Browne, who was a very punctual man, 
just before the hour of going, used to get up, walk about the 
room, and make a bustle with his gown, &c. " Now," aays 
Gray, " Browne is going to strike.^' 



XCVl APPENDIX. 



Appendix B. 



The following curious paper I owe to the kindness of Sir 
Egerton Brydges and his friend Mr. Haslewood. It was 
discovered in a volume of manuscript law cases, purchased by 
the latter gentleman at the sale of the late Isaac Reed's 
books. It is a oase submitted by the mother of Gray to the 
opinion of an eminent civilian in 1735; and it proves, that 
to the great and single exertions of this admirable woman. 
Gray was indebted for his education, and consequently for 
the happiness of his life. The sorrow and the mournful 
affection with which he dAvelt on his mother's memory, serves 
tu shew the deep sense he retained of what she suffered, as 
well as what she did for him. Those who have read the 
Memoirs of Kirke White in Mr. Southey's Narrative, will 
recognise the similarity of the situation in which the two 
poets were placed, in their entrance into life ; and they will 
see, that if maternal love and courage had not stept in, in 
both eases, their genius and talents would have been lost in the 
ignorance, or stifled by the selfishness, of those about them. 



CASE. 

" Philip Gray, before his marriage with his wife, (then 
Dorothy Antrobus, and who was then partner with her sister 
Mary Antrobus,) entered into articles of agreement with the 
said Dorothy, and Mary, and their brother Robert Antrobus, 
that the said Dorothy's stock in trade (which was then 240Z.) 
should be employed by the said Mary in the said trade, and 
that the same, and all profits arising thereby, should be for 
the sole benefit of the said Dorothj^ notwithstanding her 
intended coverture, and her sole receipts alone a sufiieient 
discharge to the said Mary and her brother Robert Antrobus, 
who was made trustee. IBut in case either the said Philip or 
Dorothy dies, then the same to be assigned to the survivor. 

" That in pursuance of the said articles, the said Mary, 
with the assistance of the said Dorothy her sister, hath carried 
on the said trade for near thirty years, with tolerable success 
for the said Dorothy. That she hath been no charge to the 
said Philip; and during all the said time, hath not only found 



APPENDIX. XCVU 

herself in all manner of apparel, but also for all her children, 
to the number of twelve, and most of the furniture of his 
house ; and paying 40/. a year for his shop, almost providing 
every thing for her son, whilst at Eton school, and now he is at 
Peter-House at Cambridge. 

" Notwithstanding which, almost ever since he hath been 
married, he hath used her in the most inhuman manner, by 
beating, kicking, punching, and with the most vile and abusive 
language ; that she hath been in the utmost fear and danger 
of her life, and hath been obliged this last year to quit her 
bed, and lie with her sister. This she was resolved, if possible, 
to bear J not to leave her shop of trade for the sake of her son, to 
be able to assist in the maintenance of him at the Universitt/, since 
his father won't. 

" There is no cause for this usage, unless it be an unhappy 
jealousy of all mankind in general (her own brother not 
excepted); but no woman deserves, or hath maintained, a 
more virtuous character: or it is presumed if he can make 
her sister leave cff trade, he thinks he can then come into 
his wife's money, but the articles are too secure for his vile 
purposes. 

" He daily threatens he will pursue her with all the ven- 
geance possible, and will ruin himself to undo her, and his only 
son; in order to which he hath given warning to her sister to 
quit his shop, where they have carried on their trade so suc- 
cessfully which will be almost their ruin : but he insists she 
shall go at Midsummer next; and the said Dorothy, his wife, 
in necessity must be forced to go along with her, to some other 
house- and shop, to be assisting to her said sister, in the said 
trade, for her own and son's support, 

*' But if she can be quiet, she neither expects or desires any 
help from him: but he is really so very vile in his nature, 
ehe hath all the reason to expect most troublesome usage from 
him that can be thought of. 

QUESTION. 

" What he can, or possibly may do to molest his wife in 
living with her sister, and assisting in her trade, for the pur- 
poses in the said articles ; and which will be the best way for 
her to conduct herself in this unhappy circumstance, if he 
should any ways be troublesome, or endeavour to force her to 
live with him '? And whether the said Dorothy, in the life- 
time of the said Philip, may not by will, or otherwise, dispose 
of the interest, or produce, which hath, or may arise, or 
become due for the said stock as she shall think fit, it being 
apprehended as part of her separate estate 1 " 

h 



XCviii APPENDIX. 



ANSWER. 



" If Mrs. Gray should leave her husband's house, and go 
to live with her sister in any other, to assist her in her trade, 
her husband may, ajad probably will call her, by process in 
the Ecclesiastical Court, to return home and cohabit with him, 
which the court will compel her to do, unless she can shew 
cause to the contrary. She has no other defence in that case, 
than to make proof, before the court, of such cruelties as may 
induce the judge to think she cannot live in safety with hor 
husband: then the court will decree for a separation. 

" This is a most unhappy case, and such a one, as I think, 
if possible, should be referred to, and made up by some com- 
mon friend ; sentences of separation, by reason of cruelty 
only, being very rarely obtained. 

** What the cruelties are which he has used towards her, 
and what proof she is able to make of them, I am yet a 
stranger to. She will, as she has hitherto done, bear what 
she reasonably can, without giving him any provocation to 
use her ill. If, nevertheless, he forces her out of doors, the 
most reputable place she can be in, is with her sister. If he 
will proceed to extremities, and go to law, she will be justified, 
if she stands upon her defence, rather perhaps than if she 
was plaintiff in the cause , 

" As no power of making a will is reserved to Mrs. Gray, 
by her marriage settlement, and not only the original stock, 
but likewise the produce and interest which shall accrue, and 
be added to it, are settled upon the husband, if he survives 
his wife ; it is my opinion she has no power to dispose of it 
by will, or otherwise. 

" JOH. AVDliEY.** 

** Doctors' Commons, 
Feb. 9th. 1735." 



APrEISIDlX. XCIX 



Appendix C. 



ifliscellaneous Extracts from the Manuscript Papers of the Rev. 
William Cole, of Milton in Cambridgeshire, relating to Gray; 
now in the British Museum,. 



Ou Tuesday July 30th, 1771, Mr. Essex calling on me, in 
his way to Ely, told me that Mr. Grray was thought to be 
dying of the gout in his stomach. I had not heard before 
that he was ill, though he had been so for many days. So I 
sent my servant in the evening to Pembroke-Hall, to enquire 
after his welfare ; but he was then going off, and no message 
could be delivered; and he died that night. He desired to 
be buried early in the morning at Stoke-Pogeis ; * and accord- 
ingly was put in lead, and conveyed from Cambridge on 
Sunday morning, with a design to rest at Hoddesdon the 
first night, and Salt-hill on Monday night, from whence he 
might be very early on Tuesday morning at Stoke. He made 
the master of Pembroke (his particular friend) his executor; 
who, with his niece Antrobus, Mr. Cummins a merchant of 
Cambridge, who had married her sister, and a 3'oung gentle- 
man of Christ's-College with whom he was very intimate, 
went in a mourning-coach after the hearse, to see him put 
into his grave. He left all his books and MSS. to his par- 
ticular friend Mr. Mason, with a desire that he would do with 
the latter what he thought proper. When he saw all was 
over with him, he sent an express to his friend Mr. Stone- 
hewer, who immediately came to see him ; and as Dr. Gisborne 
happened to be with him when the messenger came, he brought 



* Gray's tomb is at the end of the chancel of Stoke-Pogeis 
church. At Strawberry-Hill there is a drawing by Bacon of 
Gray's tomb, by moonlight; given to Lord Orford, by Sir 
Edward Walpole. See Lord Orford's Works, vol. ii. p. 425. 
Not far from the churchyard is the Cenotaph erected by Mr. 
Penn to the memory of Gray, from a design, I believe, by 
the late Mr. Wyatt. 



C APPENDIX. 

him down to Cambridge with him ; which was the more lucky, 
as Professor Plumptre * had refused to get up, beiog sent to 
in the night. But it was too late to do any good: and indeed 
he had all the assistance of the faculty f besides at Cambridge. 
It is said, that he has left all his fortune to his two nieces at 
Cambridge; and just before his death, about a month, or 
thereabout, he had done a very generous action, for which he 
was much commended. 

His aunt Olliffe, an old gentlewoman of Norfolk, had loft 
that county, two or three years, to come and live at Cambridge ; 
and dying about the time I speak of, left him and Mr. 
Cummins executors and residuary legatees; but Mr. Gray 
generously gave up his part to his nieces, one of whom Mrs. 
Olliffe had taken no notice of, and who wanted it sufficiently. 
* * * * X was told by Mr. Alderman Burleigh, the present 
mayor of Cambridge, that Mr. Gray's father had been an 
Exchange-broker, but the fortune he had acquired of about 
10,000/. was greatly hurt by the fire in Cornhill ; so that Mr. 
Gray, many years ago, sunk a good part of what was left, 
and purchased an annuity, in order to have a fuller income. 
I have often seen at his chambers, in his ink-stand, a neat 
pyramidal bloodstone seal, with these arms at the base, viz. :f 
a lion rampant, within a bordure engrailed, being those of 
the name of Gray, and belonged, as he told me, to his father. 
His mother was in the millinery way of business. His person 
was small, well put together, and latterly tending to plump- 
ness. He was all his life remarkably sober and temperate. 
I think, I heard him say he never was across a horse's back 
in his life. He gave me a small print or etching of himself 
by Mr. Mason, which is extremely like him. 

II. 

1 am apt to think the characters of Voiture and Mr. Gray 
were very similar. They were both little men, very nice and 



* Dr. Plumptre certainly refused to get up to attend Gray 
in his last illness ; but it was to be considered, that he was 
grown old, and had found it necessary to adopt this rule with 
all his patients. Ed. 

■j- Dr. Glynn was Gray's physician at Cambridge, and like- 
wise a very intimate friend. Ed. 

:{: Sir Egerton Brydges informs me, that Gray's arms are 
the same as those of Lord Gray of Scotland; who claimed a 
relationship with him, (see Mason's Memoirs, vol. iv. lett 
55,) and as the present Earl Grey's. 



APPENDIX. CI 

exact in their persons and dress, most livelj and agreeable 
in conversation, except that Mr. Gray was apt to be too 
satirical, and both of them full of affectation. In GU. Bias, 
the print of Scipio in the arbour, beginning to tell his own 
adventures to Gil Bias, Antonio, and Beatrix, was so like 
the countenance of Mr. Gray, that if he sat for it, it could 
not be more so. It is in a 12mo edition in four volumes, 
printed at Amsterdam, chez Herman Vytwerf, 1735, in the 
4th volume, p. 94. — p.m. It is ten times more like him 
than his print before Mason's life of him, which is horrible, 
and makes him a fury. That little one done by Mr. Mason 
is like him ; and placid Mr. Tyson spoilt the other by alter- 
ing it. 

III. 

It must have been about the year 1770, that Dr. Farmer 
and Mr. Gray ever met, to be acquainted together, as about 
that time I met them at Mr. Oldham's chambers, in Peter- 
House, to dinner. Before, they had been shy of each other: 
and though Mr. Farmer was then esteemed one of the most 
ingenious men in the University, yet Mr. Gray's singular 
nieeness in the choice of his acquaintance made him appear 
fastidious to a great degree, to all who were not acquainted 
with his manner. Indeed, there did not seem to be any pro- 
bability of any great intimacy from the style and manner of 
each of them. The one a cheerful, companionable, hearty, 
open, downright man, of no great regard to dress or common 
forms of behaviour : the other, of a most fastidious and 
recluse distance of carriage, rather averse to sociability, but 
of the graver turn; nice, and elegant in his person, dress, 
and behaviour, oven to a degree of finicalness and effeminacy. 
So that nothing but their extensive learning and abilities 
could ever have coalesced two such different men, and both of 
great value in their own line and walk. They were ever 
after great friends; and Dr. Farmer, and all of his acquaint- 
ance, had soon after too much reason to lament his loss, and 
the shortness of their acquaintance. 



IV. 



Two Latin Epitaphs in the Church of Burnham, in Bucking- 
hamshire, supposed to be from the pen of Mr. Gray (pub- 
lished from Cole's MSS. in the Europear Magazine, July 
1704.) 



CM APPENDIX. 

Huic Loco prope adsunt Cineres 
ROBERTI ANTROBUS. 

Vix fuit, si quis unquam fuit, Amicorum amanS, 

Et Amicid ainandus. 

Ita Ingenio et Doctrina valuit, 

Ut suis Houori fuerit, et aliis Commodo. 

Si Mores respicis, probus et humanus. 

Si Animum, semper sibi constans. 

Si Fortunam, plura meruit quam tulit. 

In Memoriam defuncti posuit 

Hoc Marmor 



M.S. 

Jonathani Rogers, 

Qui Juris inter Negotia diu versatus, 

Opibus modicis laudabili Industrial partis, 

Extremos Vitae Annos 

Sibi, Amicis, Deo dioavit. 

Humanitati ejus nihil Otium detraxit, 

Nihil Integritati Negotia. 

Qusenam bonas Spei justior Causa, 

Quam perpetua Morum Innocentia 

Animus erga Deuui revereuter alfectus, 

Erga omnes Homines benevole 1 

Vixit Ann. Ixv. Ob. Stoke in Com. Bucks. 

A.D. MDCGXLII. Octob. xxxi. 

Anna, Conjux moestissima, 

per Annos xxxii. 
Null& unquam iutercedente 

Querimoni^ 

Omnium Curarum Particeps, 

Hoc Marmor 

(Sub quo et suos Cineres juxfa condi destinat) 

Pietatis Officium heu ! ultimum, 

P.C. 



V. 

From the Information of Sir Egerton Brydges, K.J.M P. 

Among the friends of Gray, was the Rev. William Ro- 
binson, (third brother of Mrs. Montagu,) of Denton Court, 
near Canterbury, and rector of Burfield, Berks. He was 



APPENDIX. cm 

educated at Westminster, and at St. John's College, Cam« 
bridge, where he formed a particular intimacy with Gray, 
who twice* visited him at Denton. He died Dec. 1803, aged 
about seventy-five. Mr. Robinson was an admirable classical 
scholar, to whose taste Gray paid great deference. He did 
not consider Mr. Mason as equal to the task of writing Gfray'a 
Life; and on that account when Mason (from his knowledge 
of Mr. R.'s intimacjf with Clray) coiuniunicate 1 his intention 
to him, Mr. Robinson declined returning him an answer, 
which produced a coolness between them which was never 
afterwards made up. Mr. Robiuson, however, owned that 
Mason had executed his task better than he had expected. 
The * Lines on Lord Holland's House at Kingsgate,' were 
written when on a visit to Mr. Robinson, and found in the 
drawer of Gray's dressing table after he was gone. They 
were restored to him; for he had no other copy, and had 
forgotten them. What was the real ground of the quarrel 
between Gray and Walpole when abroad, I do not know; 
but have reason to believe that it was of too deep a nature 
ever to be eradicated from Gray's bosom ; which I gather from 
certain expressions half diopped to ^ir. Robinson. Mr. R. 
thought Gray not only a great poet, but an exemplary, 
amiable, and virtuous man. Gray's poem on ' Lord Holland ' 
first appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xlvii. p. 624, 
and vol. xlviii. p. 88; that on 'Jemmy Twitcher,' in vol. 111. 
p. 39. 

When he went to court to kiss the king's handf for his 
place, he felt a mixture of shyness and pride, which he ex- 
pressed to one of his intimate friends in terms of strong ill- 
humour. 

VI. 

The pleasantest morning that I passed at Cambridge, was 
in company with Mr. Gray, and some critics, at the rehearsal 
of the music for his ode, previous to its grand performance 
at the Senate House : and I thought that as he had so many 
directions to give, and such nice distinctions to make, it was 
as well he had to deal with the pliant Dr. Randall, rather 
than with some of the able composers in the metropolis. 
Mr. Gray was not at that time much more comfortable than 
the Chancellor himself; for the press was teeming with abuse, 



* See the beautiful description of Kentish scenery, written 
on this tour, in Gray's Letters by Mason. 

t ' What if for nothing once you kist 
Against the grain, a monarch's fist.' 

Swift's Misc. vol. v. p. 162. 



dV APPENDIX. 

and a very satirical parody was then preparing, which 30on 
afterwards appeared. His own delicious ode must always be 
admired, yet this envenomed shaft was so pointedly levelled 
at him, though he affected in his letter to Mason to disregard 
it, that with his fine feelings he was not only annoyed, but 
very seriously hurt by it. — v. Cradock's Mem. p. 107-8. 

From time to time I had treasured up many bon-mots of 
Gray communicated by Mr. Tyson, and by the former fellow- 
collegian of Gray, the Rev. Mr. Sparrow, of Walthamstow, 
who was always attentive to his witty effusions. Some few 
of these have been printed incorrectly, and freely bestowed 
on others in the Johnsoniana. Johnson was highly displeased, 
that a.ny should be attributed to him, as mentioned by Mr. 
Davies. When he was publishing his life of Gray, I gave 
him several anecdotes, but he was very anxious as soon as 
possible to get to the end of his labours. Not long since I 
received a very kind message from the Rev. Mr. Bright, 
Skefl&ngton Hall, Leicestershire, to inform me that he had 
wished to deposit with me all the remaining documents and 
papers of Gray, as bequeathed to him by Mr. Stonehewer, 
but that he found that they all had been carried off to Rome 
inadvertently by a learned Editor. If recovered they should 
certainly be consigned to me. — Id. p. 1834. 



APPENDIX. CV 



Appendix D. 

(See page xxix. *.) 
* The curlew tolls the knell of parting day,' 

Dr. Warton would read " The curfew tolls ! — the knell of 
parting day." The curfew-6e/Z is the general expression of the 
old poets ; the word ' toll ' is not the appropriate verb ; it was 
not a slow bell tolling for the dead; hence, 

'Curfew was ronge — lyghts were set up in haste.' 

And Shakespeare, 'None since the curfew rwn^,' — and 'the 
curfew bell hath rung, 'tis three o'clock.' Bat there is an- 
other error; a confusion of time. The curfew tolls, and the 
ploughman returns from work. Now the ploughman returns 
two or three hours before the curfew rings ; and ' the glimmer- 
ing landscape ' has long ceased to fade before the curfew. 
• The parting day ' is also incorrect; the day had long finished. 
But if the word ' curfew ' is taken simply for the ' evening- 
bell,' then also is the time incorrect; and a knell is not tolled 
for the parting, but for the parted. 

« And leaves the world lotdarkness and to me.' 

' Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight.' 

Here the incidents, instead of being progressive, fall back, 
and make the picture confused and inharmonious; especially, 
as it appears soon after, that it was not dark; for ' The moping 
owl does * to the moon complain.' 

'Molest her ancient solitary reign.' 

This line would have been better without ancient; but Gray 



* The expletives 'does,' and ' do,' and 'did,' were, we con- 
sidered, discarded from English poetry, by Pope's taste and 
skill ; who proved that he could construct his musical lines 
without them. They have lately come to life again (or rather, 
appear only to have been banished, and not destroyed,) in our 
modern tragedies, of which Mr. Maturin's Bertram affords a 
good specimen, as pointed out by Mr. Coleridge. 

' The Lord and his small train do stand appall'd. 
With torch and bell from their high battlements. 
The monks do summon,' &c. 



CVl Ari":..M;iX. 

had the ' antiqua regna ' of the Latin poets in his mind, and 
the 'deserta regna.' Besides, to '■molest a reign,' ia a very 
ungraceful and most unusual expression ; and only endujned 
for the rhyme's sake. 

* Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,* 
This is redundant. 

' For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,* 

If the hearth blazes, of course it must burn j but * blazing 
hearth ' Gray had from Thomson, and ' burn ' was added for 
the rhyme, 'return.' 

•No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.' 

Here the epithet lowly, as applied to bed, occasions an ambi- 
guity, as to whether the poet meant the bed on which they 
sleep, or the grave in which thejf are laid, which is in poetry 
called a lovj or lowly bed. Of course the former is designed; 
but Mr. Lloyd, in his Latin translation, mistook it for the latter. 
There can be no greater fault in composition than a doubtful 
meaning, — vitanda in primis ambiguitas, 

* Or busy housewife ply her evening care.* 

To ply a care, is an expression that is not proper to our lan- 
guage, and was probably formed for the rhyme — *.share.' 

* Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; 

How jocund did they drive their team afield; 
How bent the woods beneath their sturdy stroke.* 

This stanza is made up of various pieces inlaid, ' Stubborn 
glebe,' is from Gay; 'drive afield,' from Milton; 'sturdy 
stroke,' from Spenser. Such is too much the system of Gray's 
compositions, and therefore such the cause of his imperfections. 
Purity of language, accuracy of thought, and even similarity 
of rhyme — all give way to the introducti-on of certain poeti- 
cal expressions ; in fact, the beautiful .jewel, when brought, 
does not fit into the new setting, or socket. Such is the diffe- 
rence between the flower stuck into the ground, and those that 
grow from it. 

•^ Their homely joys and destiny obscure; 
The short and simple annals of the poor.' 

A very imperfect rhyme, such as Swift would not have 
allowed, and ought not to have appeared in such a poem, 
where the finishing is supposed to be high, and the expression 
said to be select. 



AITENDIX. CVU 

* And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave.* 

This expression simply means ' beauty and wealth,' and is 
mucn weakened by the addition e'er gave, which was necessary 
for the rhyme ' grave.' 

' Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault.* 
A prosaic and colloquial line. 

* Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust 1 ' 

An unusually bold expression, to say the least. Pope has, 

* But when our country's cause provokes to arms.' 
Again, 

* Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 
Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd,' &e. 

Inoorreet in the syntax: — ' Some hands is laid.* 

* Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd.* 

rhe rod of empire' is rather a semi-burlesque expression, 
than a serious one, and degrades the image. Tickell has a 
better : — 

' Proud names, that once the reins of empire held.' 

But then the rhyme ' sway'd ' would not have done. We see, 
while writing this, that ' reins ' was in the original MS., 
and undoubtedly dispossessed of its place for the sake of the 
verb. 

' But knowledge to their eyes her ample page. 

Rich vrith the spoils of time, did ne'er unroll,' Ac. 

It is necessary to go back six stanzas to find the subject to 
which the relative their refers; i. e. 

' The short and simple annals of the PooB.' 

' Rich with the spoils of time, did ne'er unroU.' 

This fine expression is taken from Sir Thomas Browne's 
Religio Medici — ' Rich with the spoils of Nature.' 

* Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage.' 

The use of the word ' rage ' for desire, if not introduced by 
Pope, was too much used by him. 

' So just thy skill, so regular thy rage;"" 



CVTU APPENDIX. 

And, 

* Be justly warin'd by your own native rage.* 

' Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast. 
It should be ' who,' instead of ' that.' 

* To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.' 
This is from Tickell — 

' To scatter blessings on the British land.' 

* From insult to protect.' ' Sculpture deck'd,' is not an 
allowable rhyme; and what is the force or meaning of the 
word still erected nigh '? ' 

' Their lot forbade, — nor circumscrib'd alone 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd — 
Forbade to wade through slaughter to- a throne, 
Or shut the gates of mercy on mankind; 

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, 
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame. 

Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride 
With incense kindled at the muse's flame.' 

Who does not feel how fiat and superfluous is the latter stanza, 
after the fine concluding couplet of the former? The two 
stanzas ought to have been remodelled; part of the second 
thrown into the first, and then the whole should conclude with 
the greatest crime, the grandest imagery, and the finished 
picture, — 

' Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne. 
Or shut the gates of mercy on mankind.' 

There should the description close; all after that must be 
weak and superfluous. 

' Far' from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. 
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray.' 

There is an ambiguity in this couplet, whioh indeed gives a 
sense exactly contrary to that intended; to avoid which, one 
must break the grammatical construcLion. The first line is 
from Drummond: — ■' Far from the uiadding worldling's hoarse 
discords.' 

* Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day. 

« Precincts,' a lifeless and prosaic word; and unsaited to the 
epithet ' warm.' How superior is Tasso — 

' E lascio mesta Vaicre. suave della vita.' 



APPENDIX. CtX 

* And many a holy text around sbe strews. 

That teach the rustic moralist to die.' 

This is ungrammatioal. • Many a holy text that teache-^^* it 
ought to be. 

* On some fond breast the parting soul relies. 

Some pious drops the closing eye requires, 

E'en from the tomb the voice of Nature cries. 

E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.' 

Pious drops ' is from Ovid — ' pise lacrymae; ' ' Closing eye,* 
is from Pope's Elegy; ' Voice of Nature,' from the Antho- 
logia; and the last line from Chaucer — 

' Yet in our ashes cold is fire yreken.' 

From so many different quarries are the stones brought to form 
this elaborate mosaic pavement. From this stanza the style 
of composition drops into a lower key; the language is plainer, 
and is not in harmony with the splendid and elaborate diction 
of the former part. Mr, Mason says it has a Doric delicacy. 

' There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
His listless limbs at noontide would he stretch.' 

Such imperfect rhymes are not allowable in short and finished 
poems. And so, in the following stanza, ' we saw him borne ' 
— 'beneath yon aged thorn.' And in the xx and xxi stanzas, 
there are four lines in the rhymes of similar sound, as ' nigh,' 
' sigh,' ' supply,' ' die.' 

' Now drooping woful-wan, like one forlorn.' 

' Woful-wan ' is not a legitimate compound, and must be divided 
anto two separate words, for such they are, when released 
from the handcuffs of the hyphen. Hurd has wrongly given 
' lazy-pacing,' and ' barren-spirited,' and * high-sighted,' as 
oompound epithets, in his notes on Horace's Art of Poetry ' 

' Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he.' 

A very bald, flat, prosaic line. 

- * Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth.' 

Such personifications are not in the taste of our old and best 
writers, but grow up in modern times. Dodsley's Specimens 
are full of them. So little did the printer know about it, that 
he has not even printed science with a capital letter. Horaoo 
is correct, as well as beautifully poetical: — 

' Quern tu, Melpomene, semel 
Nagoentem placido lumine videris.* ^ 



ex 4PPENDIX. 

' Or di-aw his frailties from their dread abode.' 
It should be ' Nor.' 



ADDITIONAL NOTES. 

' 'Twas on a lofty vase's side, 
Where China's gayest art had dy'd 
The azure flowers that blow.' 

Ode on the Death of a favounte Cat, 

Bo Lady M. Montagu, in one of her Town EclogUesy written 
in 1715: 

* Where the tall jar erects its stately pride. 
With antic shapes in China's azure dy'd.' 

Friday— The Toilette. D. 

* Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight.' 

Elegy. 
So Lady M. Montagu: 

' She said, and slowly leaves the realms of night. 
While the curs'd phantoms praise her droning flight.* 
The Court of Dullness. D. 

' Till the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, 
Left their Parnassus,' &c. Progress of Poesy. 

Compare Gabriel Harvey: 

* It is not long, since the goodlyest graces of the most noble 
commonwealthes upon earth. Eloquence in speech, and Civility 
in manners, arriued in these remote parts of the world : it was 
a happy reuolution of the heauens, and worthy to be chro- 
nicled in an English Liuy, when Tiberis flowed into the 
Thames; Athens removed to London; pure Italy and fine 
Greece planted themselues in rich England; Apollo with his 
delicate troupe of Muses forsooke his old mountaines and 
riuers, and frequented a new Parnassus, and an other Helicon, 
iiothinge inferiour to the olde, when they were most solemnely 
haunted of diuine wittes, that taught Rhetorique to speake 
with applause, and Poetry to sing with admiration.' Pierce's 
Supererogation, 1593, p. 15. D. 

' Amazement, in his van, with Flight combin'd. 
And Sorrow's faded form, and Solitude behind.' 

The Bard', St. ii. 1. 
So Swift: 

* On he went, and in his van Confusion and Amaze, while 
Horror and Affright brought up the Rear.' 

Battle of the Books. D. 



APPENDIX. CXI 



Appendix E. 



Memorabilia — from Mr. Bray's notes. See Mrs. Bray's 
Description of Devonshire, in letters to E. Southey, esq., vol. 
iii. p. 311. 

Jan. 27, 1807. In a conversation which I had with Mr. 
Mathias on Italian literature, he informed me that Gray^ 
though so great a poet himself, and an admirer of the poets 
of Italy, was unacquainted with the works of Gruidi, Menzini, 
Filicaia, <&c., and indeed of almost all, that are contained in 
his ' Componomenti Lirici.' He had once in his possession the 
commonplace book of Gray, and it contained very copious 
extracts from the Commentary of Crescembini. He told me 
that he could gratify me with a sight of Gray's hand writing, 
and fetched from his library a fac-simile, being a kind of com- 
mentary in English on Pindar and Aristophanes. It was 
written remarkably neat and plain, but rather stiff, and 
bearing evident marks of being written slowly. It had a 
great resemblance to the Italian mode of writing, every part 
of the letters being nearly of an equal thickness. He wrote 
always with a crow-quUl. 

Observing no obliterations or erasures, and indeed only one 
or two interlineations, I remarked that it must have been a 
fair copy, and wondered how he coujd have taken so much 
pains, unless he had intended it for publication. But Mr. 
Mathias assured me, that Gray was so averse to publication, 
that had not a surreptitious copy of his ' Elegy in a Country 
Church -yard' appeared, he never would have published it; 
and even when he did, it was without his name. The reason 
that he was so correct, was that he never committed any 
thing to paper till he had most maturely considered it before 
hand. 

Mr. Mathias explained to me how he was so well acquainted 
with these particulars respecting Gray, by informing me that 
he was most intimate with Mr. Nichols, the familiar friend 
and executor of Gray, who had lent him the MSS. On my 
lamenting that they were never made public, he said that it 
was not for want of his most earnest solicitation, but that Mr. 
Nichols was an old man, and wished even to conceal that he 
was in possession of any such precious reliques, lest he should 
be plagued with requests to have them copied, or at least to 
shew them. He therefore in a manner enjoined me to secrecy. 



CXll APPENDIX. 

and I consequently commit the pleasant memoranda to paper, 
merely for my own satisfaction, that, on occasional inspection, 
the pleasure I received from this conversation may be more 
firmly brought to my recollection. For the same reason, 
and as these MSS. are never likely to be made public, I shall 
enter more at large upon the consideration of them ; at least 
as much as a cursory inspection during a morning call would 
permit. 

As Gray always affixed the date to everything he wrote, 
which, as Mr. Mathias assured me, was the custom of Pe- 
trarch, it seems that he wrote his remarks on Pindar at rather 
an early age. I think the date was 1747. It is very closely 
written : the Greek characters are remarkably neat. He 
begins with the date of the composition, and takes into his 
consideration almost every thing connected with it, both chro- 
nologically and historically. The notes of the Scholiasts do 
not escape him, and he is so minute as to direct his attention 
to almost every expression. He appears to have reconciled 
many apparent incongruities, and to have elucidated many 
difficulties. I the more lament these valuable annotations 
remain unpublished, as they would prove that, in the opinion 
of 80 great a man, the English language is in every respect 
adequate to express everything that criticism the most erudite 
can require. It presented to my eye a most gratifying no- 
velty, to see the union of Greek and English, and to find that 
they harmonized together as well as Greek and Latin. 

The remarks on, the plays of Aristophanes were so minute, 
not only expressing where they were written and acted, but 
when they were revived, that, as Mr. Mathias justly observed, 
'one would think he was reading the account of some modern 
comedy, instead of the dramatic compusition of about two 
thousand years old.' Gray also left behind hun very copious 
remarks upon Plato, which had also formerly been in Mr. Ma- 
thias's hands, likewise large collections respecting the customs 
of the ancients, &c. And so multifarious and minute were hia 
investigations, that he directed his attention even to the Su- 
pellex, or household furniture of the ancients, collecting to- 
gether all the passages of the classics that had any reference 
to the subject. 

Mr. Mathias shewed me likewise many sheets copied by 
Gray from some Italian author; also, I believe, an historical 
composition, and a great many genealogies, of which Gray 
was particularlj'^ fond. On my remarking that I wished Graj 
had written less genealogies and more poetry, he informed me 
that the reason he had written so little poetry, was from the 
great exertion it cost him (which he made no reserve in con- 
fessing) in the labour of composition. Mr. Mathias informed 
me that he had seen the original copy of Gray's ' Ode on the 



APPEJSDix. cxm 

Progress of Poetry ! ' that there were not so many alterations 
as he expected, which was evidently owing to his method of 
long previous meditation, and that some of the lines were 
written three or four times over; and then, what is not always 
the case with an author, the best is always adopted. 

ITe said there was nothing of which Gray had not the pro- 
fouudest knowledge, at least of such subjects as come under 
the denomination of learning, except mathematics, of which, 
as well as his friend Mason, he was completely ignorant, and 
which he used frequently to lament. He was acquainted with 
botany, but hardly seems to have paid it the compliment it 
deserves, when he said he learnt it merely for the sake of 
sparing himself the trouble of thinking." 



eziY 



A.PPENDIX. 



Appendix F. 
CLASSIFICATION OF THE POETS, . 

FORMED BY POPE. 

(See Observ* on the English Poets , by Pope, in Spence'g Aneo- 
doteSf ed. Malone, p. 81, 145.) 

^RA I. 

Rymer, 2d part, p. 65, 66, 67, 77. Petrarch, 78. Catal. or 
Provencals. [Poets.] 

Romaunt of the Rose. 



Tales from Boccace. 



1 a»-u ^^ c C Chaucer's Visions.* 

1. bChOOl 01 > -r.. -ni 

I^™-- \ GowS. "°™'" 

r Lydgate. 

2. School of 1 T. Occleve. 
Chaucer. | Walter de Mapes. 

\ Skelton. 

"Earl of Surrey. 
Sir Thomas Wyat. 
Sir Philip Sydney. 

Gr. Gascoyne. Translator of Ariosto*s Go- 
medy. 

f Mirror of Magistrates. 
Lord Buckhurst's Induction. Gorboduck. — 
[Original of good Tragedy. — Seneca his 
Model.] 



3. School of 
Petrarch. 



^RA n. 

Spenser. Col. Clout, from the School of Ariosto, and Petrarch, 
translated from Tasso. 



6. School of 
Spenser, 
and from 
Italian 
Sonnets. 



IW. Brown's Pastorals. 
Ph. Fletcher's Purple Island. Alabaster. 
Piscatory Eclogues. 
S. Daniel. 
Sir Walter Raleigh. 
Milton's Juvenilia. Heath Habington. 



* Read. Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose. Visions of Pierce 
Plowman. [Mai one.] 



APPENDIX. 



cxv 



Translators 
from Italian. 



6. School of 
Donne. 



{Golding. 
Edw. Fairfax. 
Harrington. 

Cowley. Davenant. 
Michael Drayton. 
Sir Thomas Overbury. 
Randolph 
Sh- John Davis. 
■i Sir John Beaumont. 
Cartwright. 
Cleiveland. 
Crashaw. 
Bishop Corbet. 
Lord Falkland. 

Carew, } . j.i. ^ 

T. Carey, I ^^ '^^*^'^^' | 
G. Sandys, in -» 

his Par. of ' in versifi- 

Job, I 

Fairfax, J 

Sir John Menni 
Tho. Baynal, 



Models to 
Waller. 



cation, 



Oriw-inals of Hudibras. 



Here are several mistakes. The fiist paragraph under ^ra 
II. viz. " Spenser, Col. Clout, from the School of Ariosto, and 
Petrarch, translated from Tasso," is uuintelligible. We have 
no English poem by Alabaster. Golding, I believe, translated 
nothing from the Italian. Sir John Davies and Drayton wrote 
nearly as soon as Donne. Carew, and T. Carey, are the same 
person ; and Thomas Carew, the person meant, had published 
nothiag when Waller wrote his first poem. There is no poet 
of the name of Baynal. The person meant, I suspect, was 
Tho. Randal, in which way the name of Randolph the poet 
was^ often written in the last century ; and Pope might not 
have known that Randulph, Avhom he mentioned before, and 
Tho. Randal, were the same person. [Malone.] * 

To these observations by Mr. Malone, I shall add, that there 
does not seem to be any just ground for placing Chaucer in the 



* Randall. — See Llewellyn's Poems, P. A. 5. Randall 
Ma^'ters, Cartwright — See Dryden's Art of Poetry, i. 242, 
'Randall in his Rustic Strains.' See Pref. Poems to Gayton's 
Cbartte Scriptse. Tom. Randall ! 4to. 1G45. I'ancroft's 
Essay, 4to. p. 2. T. Randall. See Faithf. Teate's Poems, 
IC99, p. 1 , Randall, and Davenant. Marlow was spelt Mar- 
lei/, see Peele'ji Works, ed. Dyce, ii. 14'J. 



CXVl APPENDIX. 

school of Provence. Mr. Trywhitt says, " As to Chaucer's 
language, I have not observed, in any of his vrritings, a single 
phrase or word, which has the least appearance of having beui! 
fetched by him from the south of the Loire. With respect to 
the manner and inatter of his compositions, till some clear in- 
stance of imitation be produced, I shall be slow to believe, 
that in either he ever copied the poets of Provence, with whose 
works, I apprehend, he had very'Hittle, if any, acquaintance. ' 
[Cant. Tales, pref. p. xxxv.] Even T. AVavton, in his Emen- 
dations and Additions to his second volume [p. 458], says: " I 
have never affirmed that Chaucer imitated the Provencal 
bards ; although it is by no means improbable that he might 
have known their tales." Secondly, Davenant and Drayton 
can never be placed in the school of Donne.* Drayton should 
be ranked with Spenser; where indeed Pope, in his conversa- 
tion with Spence, placed him: and Davenant is a poet who 
approaches nearer to Shakspeare, in the beauty of his descrip- 
tions, the tenderness of his thoughts, the seriousness of his 
feeling, and the wildness of his fancy. Cartwright did not 
imitate Donne ; -f and Cleveland is a writer of a very, peculiar 
style, which he formed for himself. " The obtrusion of new 
words on his hearers (says Dryden) is what the world has 
blamed in our satirist Cleveland. To express a thing hard, and 
unnaturall}^ is his new way of elocution. There is this diffe- 
rence between his Satires and Donne's, that the one gives Jis 
deep thoughts in common language, through rough cadence; 
the other gives us common thoughts in abstruse words." Es- 
say on Dramatic Poesy, p. 63, 64. [See this Catalo^^ue in 
Ivlathias's Gray, vol. 11. p. 8.] 



Letter from T. Gray to Thirnas Wartnn, in the possession q/" 

Al. Chcilmrrs, Es'j. See his Life of T. W^artuUf 

V. British Poets, vol. xviii. p. 80. 

Sir, — Our friend. Dr. Hurd, having long ago desired me, in 
your name, to communicate any fiagmeuts or sketches of a 



* Perhaps Pope alluded to Suckling's verses to Davenant: — 

"Thou hast redeem'd us. Will: — and future Times 
Shall not account unto the age's crimes 
Death of fierce Wit. Since the great Lord of it 
Donne parted hence : no man has ever writ 
So near him, in his own war/.'' 

f Dryden first called Donne metaphysical. See Waxton's 
Pope, vol. iv. p. 252. 



Arri:NDix. cxvu 

design I once had to give a ITistory of English Poetry,* you 
may well think me rude or negligent, when you see me hesi- 
tating for so many months, befc>re I comply with your request; 
and yet, believe me, few of your friends have been better 
pleased than I, to find this subject (surely neither unenter- 
taining nor unuseful) had fallen into hands so likely to do it 
justice. Few have felt a higher esteem for your talents, your 
taste, and industry. In truth, the only cause of my delay 
has been a sort of diffidence, that would not let me send you 
any thing, so short, so slight, and so imperfect as the few ma- 
terials I had begun to collect, or the observations I had made 
on them. A sketch of the division or arrangement of the sub- 
ject, however, I venture to transcribe; and would wish to 
know, whether it corresponds in any thing with your own 
plan, for I am told your first volume is in the press. 

INTRODUCTION. 

On the Poetry of the Gallic or Celtic nations, as far back as 
it can be traced. On that of the Goths, its introduction into 
these islands by the Saxons and Danes, and its duration. On 
the origin of rhyme among the Franks, the Saxons, and Pro- 
ven(^aux. Some account of the Latin rhyming poetry, from its 
early origin, down to the fifteenth century. 

Part I. 

On the school of Provence, which rose about the year 1100, 
and was soon followed by the French and Italians. Their 
heroic poetry, or romances in verse, allegories, fabliaux, syr- 
vientes, comedies, farces, canzoni, sonnetts, ballades, madrigals, 
sestines, &c. Of their imitators, the French ; and of the first 
Italian School, commonly called the Sicilian, about the year 
1200, brought to perfection by Dante, Petrarch, Boccace, and 
others. State of poetry in England from the Conquest, 1066, 
or rather from Henry the Second's time, 1154, to the reign of 
Edward the Third, 1327. 

Part II. 

On Chaucer, who first introduced the manner of the Proven- 
^aux, improved by the Italians, into our country. His charao- 



* See a letter from Thos. Warton to Garrick, June 28, 1769, 
in which he says Gray had once an intention of this sort, (of 
writing the History of English Poetry), but he dropt it, as you 
may see by an Advt. to his Norway Odes. See Garriok's 
Corres. vol. 355 



CXVlll APPENDIX. 

ter, and merits at large. The different kinds in which he ex- 
celled. Gower, Occleve, Lydgate, Hawes, Gawen Douglas, 
Lyndesay, Bellenden, Dunbar, &c. 

Pabt III. 

Second Italian School, of Ariosto, Tasso, &c., an improve- 
ment on the first, occasioned by the revival of letters, the end 
of the fifteenth century. The Lyric Poetry of this and the 
former age, introduced from Italy by Lord Surrey, Sir T, 
Wyat, Bryan Lord Vaulx, &c. in the beginning of the sixteenth 
century. 

Part IV. 

Spenser, his character. Subject of his poem, allegoric and 
romantic, of Provencal invention: but his manner of tracing it 
borrowed from the second Italian school. — Drayton, Fairfax, 
Phineas Fletcher, Golding, Phaer, &g. This school ends in 
Milton. A third Italian school, full of conceit, began in Queen 
Elizabeth's reign, continued under James, and Charles the 
First, by Donne, Crashaw, Cleveland ; cai'ried to its height 
by Cowley, and ending perhaps in Sprat. 

Part V. 

School of France, introduced after the Restoration, — Waller, 
Dryden, Addison, Prior, and Pope, — which has continued to 
our own times. 



You will observe that my idea was in some measure taken 
from a scribbled paper of Pope, of which I believe you have a 
copy. You will also see, I had excluded Dramatic poetry en- 
tirely ; which if you had taken in, it would at least double the 
bulk and labour of your book. 

I am, sir, with great esteem. 

Your most humble and obedient servant, 
Thomas Gray. 
Pembroke Rally 
April 15, 1770. 



Note. There is a most objectionable Classification of the 
Poets in Dr. J, Warton's Essay on Pope. v. Ded. V. 1, p. 12. 




ODES 



I. ON THE SPUING. 



[The original manuscript title given by Gray to this Ode, was 
* Noontide.' It appeared for the first time in Dodsley's 
Collection, vol. ii. p. 271, under the title of *Ode.' See 
Meleager's Ode to Spring, and Jones. Comm. Poes. Asiaticae. 
p. 411. This Ode is formed on Horace's Ode ad Sestium, i. iv. 
Translated into Latin in Musae Etonens. Vol. ii. p. 60.] 



Lo ! where the rosy-bosom'd Hours, 

Fair Venus' train, appear, 
Disclose the long-expecting flowers^ 
And wake the purple year ! 



Notes — Ver. 1. " The Graces, and the rosy-bosom'd 
Hours.'' Milton. Comus, v. 984. W. Thorns. Spring, 1007. 
V. 2. So Homer, Hymn, ad Vener. ii. 5 : 

T^v de xpvoajniTVKEg upai 
Ae|avr' aaTraatog Ttepl 6' uftSpora elfiara ecaav. 
The Hours also are joined with Venus in the Hymn, ad Apol- 
lin. V. 194. And Hesiod places them in her train : 

UjU^i 6e TT/vye 
'Qpai KaXXLKOfioi areipov dvdeotv eiapLvolac. Erg. ver. 75. 
V. 3. " At that soft season when descending showers 

Call forth the greens, and wake the rising flowers." 
Pope. Temple of Fame, b. i. v. 1. W. — In some editions, 
" expected" is printed for " expecting." " The flowers that 
in its womb expecting lie." Dryden. Astraea Redux. Rogers, 
V. 4. Apuleius. Nuptiis Cupid, et Psyc. vi. p. 427, ed. 
Oudendorp : " HorcB, rosis, et caeteris floribus purpurabant 




GRAY 



The Attic warbler pours her throat, s 

Responsive to the cuckoo's note, 

The untaught harmony of spring : 
While, whisp'ring pleasure as they fly, - 
Cool Zephyrs thro' the clear blue sky 

Their gather'd fragance fling. lo 

Where'er the oak's thick branches stretch 

A broader browner shade, 
Where'er the rude and moss-grown beech 

O'er-canopies the glade, 
Beside some water's rushy brink is 

With me the Muse shall sit, and think 



omnia." Also in the Pervigil. Vener. v. 13: " Ipsa gemmis 
purpurantem pingit annum floribus." Pope has the same 
expression in his Past. i. 28: " And lavish Nature paints the 
purple year.'^ " Gales that wake the purple year." Mallet. 
Zephyr. 

V. 6. MartiaU Epig. i. 54: " Sic ubi multisona fervet sacer 
Althide lucus." Also in the Epitaphium Athenaidos apud 
Fabrettum, p. 702: " Cum te, nate, fleo, planctus dabit Attica 
Aedon." And "Attica volucris." Propert. II. xvi. 6. — 
Ovid. Halieut. v. 110: " Attica avis verna sub tempestate 
queratus." Add SenecEe Here. (Et. v. 200. And Milton. 
Par. R. iv. 245 : " The Attic bird trills her thick-warbled 
notes." The expression "pours her throat "is from Pope. 
Essay on. Man, iii. 33 : '* Is it for thee the linnet pours her 
throat?" So Ovid. Trist iii. 12. 8. " Indocilique loquax 
gutture vemat avis." 

V. 7 — " The hollow Cuckoo sings 

The symphony of Spring." — 

Thorns. Spring. Luke. 

V. 10. — ^' Fresh gales and gentle airs 

Whisper'd it to the woods." Par. L, viii. 516. 

V. Comus. V. 989. andP. L. iv. 327. " Cool Zephyr." Luke. 

V. 12. Milton. Par. L. iv. 24G : « The unpierc'd shade 



ODE I. 6 

(At ease reclin'd in rustic state) 
How vain the ardour of the crowd, 
How low, how little are the proud, 

How indigent the great ! » 

Still is the toiling hand of Care ; 

The panting herds repose : 
Yet, hark, how thro' the peopled air 

Var. V. 19. " How low, how indigent the proud. 
How little are the great ! " 

So these lines appeared in Dodsley. The variation, as 
Mason informs us, was subsequently made to avoid the point 
" little and great,'* 



imbrown'd the noontide bowers." " And breathes a hrovraei 
horror o'er the woods," Pope. Bloisa, 170, W, — Thomson. 
Cast, of Ind. i. 38 : " Or Autumn's varied shades imbrown the 
walls." 

V. 13. " A bank o'eraanopied with luscious woodbine." 
Mids. N. Dr. act ii. sc. 2. Gray. 

" The beech shall yield a cool safe canopy.'* 

Fletcher. Purpl. Is. i. v. 30. And T. Warton's note on Mil- 
ton's Comus, V. 543. 

V. 15. " The rushy-fringed bank." Comus. Luke. 
V. 22. " Patula pecus omne sub ulmo est." Pers. Sat. 
iii. 6. W. — But Grray seems to have imitated Pope. Past, 
ii. 86: 

" The lowing herds to murmuring brooks retreat, 
To closer shades the panting flocks remove: " 

".Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido 

Rivumque fessus quserit." Hor. lib. III. Od. xxix. 21. 

V. 23. Thomson. Autumn, 836: " Warn'd of approaching 
winter, gather 'd, play the swallow-people.** And Walton. 
Complete Angler, p. 260 : " Now the wing'd people of the 
sky shall sing." Add Beaumont. Psyche, st. Ixxxviii. p. 46: 
*' Every tree empcophd was with birds of softest throats." 
80 Alciphr. Ep, p. 341. drj^iov b7\Av 6pveo)V. and Max. Tyr. See 
Reiske's note, p. 82. 



gray's poems. 

The busy murmur glows ! 
The insect-youth are on the wing, 2S 

Eager to taste the honied spring, 

And float amid the liquid noon : 
Some lightly o'er the current skim, 
Some shew their gayly-gilded trim 

Quick-glancing to the sun. 30 

To Contemplation's sober eye 

Such is the race of Man : 
And they that creep, and they that fly, 

Shall end where they began. 
Alike the Busy and the Gay 35 

But flutter thro' life's little day. 

In Fortune's varying colors drest: 



V. 24. Thus Milton. Par. R. iv. 248: " The sound of bees' 
industrious murmur." Wakefield quotes Thomson. Spr. 506: 
« Thro' the soft air the busy nations fly." And, 649: " But 
restless hurry thro' the busy air." Compare also Pope. T. of 
Fame, 294. 

V. 25. " Some to the sun their insect-wings unfold." 
Pope. Bape of the Lock, ii. 59. W. This expression may 
have been suggested by a line in Green's Hermitage, quoted 
in Gray's Letter to Walpole: (see note at ver. 31.) 

" From maggot-youth thro' change of state 
They feel, like us, the turns of fate." 

V. 26. See Milton, as quoted by "Wakefield: II Pen. 142, 
Lycid. 140, Sams. Ag. 1066. 

V. 27. " Nare per aestatem liquidam," Georg. iv? 59. 
Gray. — To which, add Georg. i. 404 ; and ^n. v. 525 ; x. 272. 
" There I suck the liquid air." Milton. Comus, v. 980. 

V. 30. " Sporting with quick glance, shew to the sun their 
wav'd ooats dropp'd with gold," Par. L. vU. 410. Gray. — See 
also Pope, Horn. II. ii. 557; and Essay on Man, iii. 55. 

V. 31. " While insects from the threshold preach," Green, 
in the Grotto. Dodsley, Misc. v. p. 161. Gray. — Gray, in a 



ODE 1. 5 

Brusli'd by the hand of rough Mischance, 
Or chill'd by Age, their airy dance 
They leave, in dust to rest. 40 

Methinks I hear, in accents low, 

The sportive kind reply : 
Poor moralist ! and what art thou ? 

A solitary fly ! 
Thy joys no glittering female meets, « 

No hive hast thou of hoarded sweets. 

No painted plumage to display : 
On hasty wings thy youth is flown ; 
Thy sun is set, thy spring is gone — 

We frolic while 'tis May. bo 



letter to H. Walpole, says: (see Walpole's Works, vol. v. 
p, 395.) " I send you a bit of a thing for two reasons; first, 
because it is one of your favorite's,Mr. M. Green; and next, 
because I would do justice: the thought on which my second 
Ode turns, (The Ode to Spring, afterwards placed first, by 
Gray,) is manifestly stole from thence. Not that I knew it 
at the time, but having seen this many years before; to be 
sure it imprinted itself on my memory, and forgetting the 
author, I took it for my own." Then follows the quotation 
from Green's Grotto. . Wakefield seems to have discovered the 
original of this stanza in some lines in Thomson. Summer, 34'2. 

V. 37. " The varied colours run," Thoms. Spring. Luke. 
V. 47. 

" From branch to branch the smaller birds with song 
Solac'd the woods, and spread ih%\v painted wings.'' 

Par. L. vii. 438. W. And so Thomson. Spring, 582; Virg. 
Georg. iii. 243; ^n. iv. 525; Claudian, xv. 3. " Pictisque 
plumis." Phaodri Fab. iii. v. 18. 

V. 49. liavO' iCkiov aii/u S£(%i(m>. Theocrit. Idyll, i. 102. 
W. Alexis ap. Stobfeum. lib. cxv.: "H.i'^ri yap 6 (ilo^ ovfibg 
''Eoirepav uyei.. Plato has the same metaphorical expression : 



GKAY S POEMS. 



II.* ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOTJUITE CAT, 



DROWNED IN A. TUB OF GOLD FISHES. 



[On a favourite oat called Selima, that fell into a China Tub 
with gold fishes in it, and was drowned, MS. Wharton. Wal- 
pole, after the death of Gray, placed the China Vase on a 
pedestal at Strawberry Hill, with a few lines of the Ode for 
its inscription.] 

'TwAS on a lofty vase's side, 
Where China's gayest art had dy'd 
The azure flowers, that blow ; 

Var. V. 4. In the first edition the order of these lines was 
reversed: 

" The pensive fcJelima reclin'd. 
Demurest of the tabby kind.'* 



rjfieic ^'sv ^vafialc rov jSiov^ de Legib. torn. ii. p. 770, ed. 
Berrani; and Aristotelis Poetica, cap. 35: KalTbjf>pag''Ea7repav 
jHov. Add CatuU. ad Lesb. c. 5. v. 5. " Nobis, cum semel 
occidet brevis lux." Twining, in his translation of the Poetics, 
together with this line from Gray, has quoted Com. of Err. 
(last scene): " Yet hath my night of life some memory," see 
p. 108. It is a phrase very common among the old English 
poets. — Herrick has, 

" Sunk is my sight, set is my sun. 
And all the loom of life undone." 

and « My sun begins to set," Rowley's All^ lost by Lust, 
p. 63, 4to. with many oth|i-s. 

♦This Ode first appeai-ed in Dodslcy. Col. vol. ii. p. 274, 
with some variations-^, qnly one of which is given by Mason. 
They are all noticxl in|Shir< edition, as they occur. 

V. -3. This expression ha^ been accused of redundance by 



ODE II. / 

Demurest of the tabby kind, 
The pensive Selima, reclin'd, s 

Gaz'd on the lake below. 

Her conscious tail her joy declared; 
The fair round face, the snowy beard, 

The velvet of her paws, 
Her coat, that with the tortoise vies, lo 

Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes. 

She saw ; and purr'd applause. 

Still had she gaz'd ; but 'midst the tide 
Two angel forms were, seen to glide. 

The Genii of the stream : is 



Var. V. 14. First edit. *' Two beauteous forms; *' a read- 
ing that appears to me preferable to the one now in the 
text. 



Dr. Johnson and Wakefield. See Todd's Ed. of Comus, p. 
139. Gray, however, could have defended tt by the usage of 
the ancient poets. See Ovid. Metam. ix. 98: " Hunc tamen 
nblati domuit jactura decoris." And Statii Silv. II. v. 30: 
" Uaius amissi tetigit jactura leonis." Ovid ad Liv. 185: 
" Jura silent, mutcBque tacent sine vindice leges." In Jortin's 
Tracts, vol. i. p. 269, some examples of such redundant ex- 
pressions are collected from the Grreek and Latin poets. See 
on this subject also the notes of Burmann on Propertius, lib. 
iv El. vii. V. 69; on Ovid. Met. ii. 66, and on Poem. Lotichii, 
lib. i. el. 8. 27. In the Prog, of Poesy, I. i. 5. " The laugh- 
ing flowers that round them blow." " Azure flowers," v. 
Drummond. Mseliades. Luke. 

V. 15. Thomson, in his Spring, v. 400, with ei^ual beauty 
spealdng offish: . 

" in whose ample wave 

The t'tfle A'f/ir,'v iuve to sport at Urge." 



8 guay's poems. 

Their scaly armour's Tyrian hue 
Through richest purple to the view 
Betray'd a golden gleam. 

The hapless nymph with wonder saw : 

A whisker first, and then a claw, 20 

With many an ardent wish, 
She stretch'd, in vain, to reach the prize. 
What female heart can gold despise ? 

What Cat's averse to fish ? 

Presumptuous maid ! with looks intent 25 
Again she stretch'd, again she bent, 

Nor knew the gulf between. 
(Malignant Fate sat by, and smil'd) 
The slipp'ry verge her feet beguil'd. 

She tumbled headlong in. so 

Var. V. 24. « A foe to fish.'' First edit, 
v. 25. Looks'^ Eyes. MS. 



V. 17. " Aureus ipse; sed in foliis, qu£e plurima oircum 
Fanduntur, violge sublucet purpura nigrse.'* 

Virg. Georg. iv. 274. W. 
V. 18. " His shining horns diffus'd a golden gleam" Pope. 
Winds. For. 331. " And lucid amber casts a golden gleams" 
Temp, of Fame, 253. 

V. 42. This proverbial expression was a favourite among 
the old English poets: 

*' But all thing, which that shineth as the gold, 
Ne is no gold, as I have herd it told." 

See Chaucer. Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 16430. Tyrwhitt 
refers to the Parabola) of Alanus de Insulis, quoted by Leyser, 
Hist. Poet. Med. ^v. 1074: " Non teneas aurum, totum quod 
splendet ut aurum." Among the poems published with Lord 



ODE II. 9 

Eight times emerging from the flood, 
She mew'd to ev'ry wat'ry God, 

Some speedy aid to send. 
No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr'd: 
Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heard. ss 

A fav'rite has no friend ! 

From hence, ye beauties, undeceived, 
Know, one false step is ne'er retriev'd, 

And be with caution bold. 
Not all that tempts your wand'ring eyes «» 
And heedless hearts is lawful prize, 

Nor all, that glisters, gold. 

Var. V. 35. " nor Harry heard. 

What favourite has a friend ? " First edit. 
V. 40. Strikes, ms. 



Surrey's, p. 226, edit. 1717: " Not every glist'ring gives the 
goldy that greedy folk desire." In the Paradise of Dainty 
Devises, " No Foe to a Flatterer," p. 60 (reprint), is this 
line: " But now I see all is not gold, that glittereth in the eye" 
In England's Helicon, p. 194: "All is not gold, ihaX shineth 
bright in show." Spenser. F. Queen, ii. 8. 14: " Yet gold aU 
is not, that doth golden seem." 

" Not every thinge that gives a gleame and glittering showe. 
Is to be counted gold iudeede, this proverbe well you knowe.' 
Turberville. Answer of a Woman to her Lover, st. iv 

•' All as they say, that glitters is not gold." 

Dryden. H. and Panther. 

This poem was written later than the first, third, and 
fourth Odes, but was arranged by Gray in this place, in his 
own edition. 



10 gray's poems. 



m.* ON A DISTANT PROSPECT OF ETON 
COLLEGE. 

'AvdpuTTOc, Ixav^ 7rp6<paGLg e/f to dvarvxslv. 
Menander. Incert. Fragm. ver. 382. ed. Cler. p. 246. 

[See Musse Etonenses, vol. i. p. 229, and Brit. Bibliographer, 
vol. ii. p. 214.] 

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 

That crown the wat'ry glade, 
Where grateful Science still adores 

Her Henry's t holy shade ; 
And ye, that from the statel}; brow a 

Of Windsor's heights th expanse below 

Of grove, of lawn, of mead survey, 



* This, as Mason informs us, wa? the Jimt English produc- 
tion of Gray which appeared in print. It was published in 
folio, in 1747, and appeared again in Dodsley, Col. vol. ii. 
p. 267, without the name of the author. A Latin poem by 
him. On the Prince of Wales's Marriage, had appeared in 
the Cambridge Collection, in 1736, which is inserted in this 
edition. 

V. 2. " Haunt the watery glade." — 

Pope. AVind. For. Lukt 

t King Henry the Sixth, founder of the College. 

V. 4. So in the Bard, ii. 3 : •« And spare the meek usurper's 
holy head." And in Install. Ode, iV. 12: " The murder'd 
saint." So Rich. III. act v. sc. 1: " Holy King Henry." 
And act iv. sc. 4: " 'When holy Henry died." This epithe* 
has a peculiar propriety; as Henry the Sixth, though never 
canonized, was regarded as a snint. See Barrington on the 
Statutes, p. 416, and Douce. Illust <>f Shakesp. ii. 38. " Yea 
fiiiA ?ioly Hmry Ij'ing at Windsor." Barclay. Eclog. p. 4, fol. 



ODE III. 11 

Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among 
Wanders the hoary Thames along 

His silver- winding way : lo 

Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! 

Ah, fields belov'd in vain ! 
Where once my careless childhood stray'd, 

A stranger yet to pain ! 
1 feel the gales that from ye blow w 

A momentary bliss bestow. 

As waving fresh their gladsome wing, 
My weary soul they seem to soothe, 
And, redolent of joy and youth, 

To breathe a second spring. so 

Say, father Thames, for thou hast seen 



V. 5. " and now to where 

Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow.'^ 

Thorns. Sum. 1412. W, 
V. 10. "The vale of Thames fair -winding up.'' Thorns. 
Sum. 1417. Fenton in his Ode to Lord Glower, which was 
praised by Pope and Akenside, had these two lines, iii. 1: 
"Or if invok'd where Thames's fruitful tides 
Slow thro' the vale in silver volumes play." 
Spenser, vol. v. p. 87: " Sih-er-streaming Thames." 
V. 15. " L'Aura gentii che rabserena i poggi 

Destando i fior per questo ombroso bosco 
Al soavesun ypirto riconosco." Petrarca, Son. elxl. 
V. 19. " And bees their' honey redolent of spring." Dry- 
den's Fable on the Pythag. System. Gray. — "And every 
field is redolent of spring," L. Welsted's Poemg, p. 23. It ap- 
pears also in the JMemoirs of Europe towards the Close of the 
Eighth Century, by Mrs. Manly, 1716, vol. ii. p. 67: "The 
lovely Eudimion, redolent of youth." See Todd, in a note tc 
Sams. Agonist. ( Milton, vol. iv. p. 410.) 

V. 21. This invocation is taken from (xreen's Grotto; sea 
Do'dsley. Col. vol. v. p. 15'J 



12 GllAY'b i'OEMS. 

Full many a sprightly race 
Disporting on thy margent green, 

The paths of pleasure trace ; 
Who foremost now delight to cleave, 25 

With pliant arm, thy glassy wave ? 

The captive linnet which enthral ? 
What idle progeny succeed , 
To chase the rolling circle's speed, 

Or urge the flying ball 3 j 

While some on earnest business bent 

Their murm'ring labours ply 
'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint 

To sweeten liberty : 
Some bold adventurers disdain 35 

The limits of their little reign, 

Var. V. 29. "To chase the hoops illusive speed.*' MS. 

" Say, father Thames, whose gentle pace 
Gives leave to view, what beauties grace 
Your flowery banks, if you have seen.^' 

Perhaps both poeL;? thought of Cowley, vol. i. p. 117: 

" Ye fields of Cambridge, our dear Cambridge, say, 
Havf yiu not sepn us walking every day." 
Dryden. An. Mirab. St. ccxxxii. " Old father Thames rais*d 
up his reverend head." 

V. 23. " By slovt' Maeander's margent green." Milton. Com 
232. W. 

V. 24. "To virtue, in the paths of pleasure trod." Pope. 
Essay on Man, iii. 233. 

V. 26. "On the glassy wave." Todd. ed. of Comus, p. 118. 
V. 27. This expression has been noticed as tautologous- 
Thomson, on the aa/ne subject, uses somewhat redundant lan- 
guage. Spring, 702: 

" Inhuman caught; and in the narrow cage 
From liberty confined and boundless air." 



ODE III. 13 

And unknown regions dare desiiry : 
Still as they run tliey look behind, 
They hear a voice in every wind, 

And snatch a fearful joy. 40 

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed, 

Less pleasing when possest ; 
The tear forgot as soon as shed, 

The sunshine of the breast ; 
Theirs buxom health of rosy hue, ^^^ 

Wild wit, invention ever new, 

And lively cheer, of vigour born ; 
The thoughtless day, the easy night, 
The spirits pure, the slumbers light, 

That fly th' approach of morn. 50 



V. 30. " The senator at cricket urge the ball.*^ 

Pope. Dun. iv. 592. 
V. 37. This line is taken from Cowley. Pindarique Ode to 
Hobbes, iv. 7. p. 223: "Till nnknovni regions it descries.*' 

V, 40. "Magnaque post lacbrymas etiamnum gaudia pal- 
lent.^' Stat. Theb. i. 620. Foi' other expressions of this nature, 
see Wakefield's note. Add Sil. Ital. xvi. 432, " Isetoque pa- 
vore." Luke. 

V. 44. " Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.*' Pope. 
Eloisa, ver. 209. Add Essay on Man, iv. 167, "The soul'g 
calm sunshine.'* 

V. 47. " In either cheeke depeyncten lively cheere," Spen- 
ser. Hobbinol's Dittie, ver. 33. W. See Milton. Ps.lxxxiv. 5. 
*' With joy and gladsome cheer." Luke. 

V. 49. " The temperate sleeps, and spirits light as air.** 
Pope. Im. of Horace, I. 73 ; Hor. Od. ii. xi. 7. " facilemque 
somnum: " and Par. L. v. 3: 

His steep 



Was airy light, from pure digestion bred. 
And temperate vapours bland." 



\4 gray's poems. 

Alas! regardless of tlieir doom, 

The little victims play ; 
No sense have they of ills to come, 

Nor care beyond to-day : 
Yet see, how all around 'em wait fis 

The ministers of human fate, 

And black Misfortune's baleful train ! 
Ah, shew them where in ambush stand, 
To seize their prey, the murth'rous band ! 

Ah, tell them, they are men ! «o 

These shall the fury Passions tear, 

The vultures of the mind. 
Disdainful Anger, pallid Fear, 

And Shame that sculks behind ; 
Or pining Love shall waste their youth, as 
Or Jealousy, with rankling tooth, 



V. 51. "E'en now, regardless of his doom, 

Applauding honour haunts his tomb." 

Uollins. Ode on the Death of Col. Ross, 4th stanza of his first 
manuscript. 

V. 55. These two lines resemble two in Broome. Ode on 
Melancholy, p. 28: 

*' While round, stern ministers of fate. 
Pain, and Disease, and Sorrow wait." 

And Otway. Alcib. act v. sc. 2. p. 84: "Then enter, ye grim 
ministers of fate.^' 

V. 61. "The fury Passions from that flood began." See 
Pope. Essay on Man, iii. 167. 

V. 63. "Exsanguisque Metus," Stat. Theb. vii. 49. And 
from him Milton, Quint. Novemb. 148: " Exsanguisque Hor- 
ror." Pers. Sat. iii. v. 115, "Timor albus." 

V. 66. *' But gnamng Jealousy out of their sight, 
Sitting alone, his bitter lips did bite." 

Spenser. F. Q. vi. 23. 



ODE III. 16 

That inly gnaws tlie secret heart ; 
And Envy wan, and faded Care, 
Grim-visag'd comfortless Despair, 

And Sorrow's piercing dart. ro 

Ambition this shall tempt to rise, 

Then whirl the wretch from high. 
To bitter Scorn a sacrifice, 

And grinning Infamy. 
The stings of Falsehood those shall try, 75 
And hard Unkindness' alter'd eye, 

That mocks the tear it forc'd to flow ; 
And keen Remorse with blood defil'd, 
And moody IMadness laughing wild 

Amid severest woe. w 

Lo ! in the vale of years beneath 
A grisly troop are seen, 



V. 68. " With praise enough for Envy to look wan.''* 

Milton! Son. to Lawes, xiii. 6. W. Par. L. i. 601, " Care 
sate on his faded cheek." Luke, 

V. 69. Gray has here imitated Shakespeare. Richard III. 
act i. sc. 1: " Grim-visag'd War," and Com. of Err. act v. se. 
1 : " A moody and dull melancholy kinsman to grim and com- 
fortless Despair." Yarrington (Two Trag. in one) " Grim- 
visag'd Despair." Todd. 

V. 76. " Afifected Kindness with an alter'd face," Dryden. 
Hind, and Panth. part iii. 

V. 79. " Madness laughing in his ireful mood" Dryden. 
Pal. and Arc. (b. ii. p. 43. ed. Aik.) Gray. And so K. Hen. 
VI. p. 1. act iv. sc. 2* " But rather moody mad.' And act 
iii. so. 1: "Moody fury." Chaucer. Kuyghte's Tale, 1152. 

V. 81. " Deolin'd into the vale of years," Othello, act iii. 
90. 3. Compare also Virg. Mn. vi. 275 



16 gray's poems. 

The painful family of Death, 

More hideous than their queen : 
This racks the joints, this fires the veins, ss 
That every labouring sinew strains, 

Those in the deeper vitals rage : 
Lo ! Poverty, to fill the band. 
That numbs the soul with icy hand. 

And slow-consuming Age. 80 

To each his sufif'rings : all are men, 

Condemn'd alike to groan ; 
The tender for another's pain, 

Th' unfeeling for his own. 
Yet, ah ! why should they know their fate, 96 



V. 83. *' Hate, Fear, and G-rief, the family of Pain,** Pope. 
Essay on Man, ii. 118. Dryden, State of Innoe. act v. sc. 1: 
*'With all the numerous /amiZy of Death.'' Claudian uses 
language not dissimilar: Cons. Honor, vi. 323: *' Inferno stri- 
dentes agmine Morbi." And Juv. Sat. x. 218: " Circumsedit 
agmine facto Morborum omne genus." Hor. Od. 1. iii. 30, 
*'Nova febrium terris incubuit cohors." 

V. 84. See T. Warton's Milt. p. 432, 434, 511. 
Y. 90. "His slow-consuming ties." Shenstone. Love and 
Honour. 

V. 95. We meet with the same thought in Milton. Com. ver. 
359. 

" Peace, brother; be not over-exquisite 
To cast the fjtshion of uncertain evils ; 
For grant they be so, while they rest unknown. 
What need a man forestall his date of grief 1 '* W. 

V. 98. Soph. Ajax, v. 555: "Ev rw ^povelv yap fiijSer, 
fidiOTog pioc. W. See Kidd's note to Hor. Ep. xi. 2. 140. 

V. 99. See Prior, (Ep. to Hon. C. Montague, st. ix.) 

*' From ignorance our comfort flows, 
The only wretched are the wise." — Luke. 

Add Davenant Just Italian, p. 32, "Since knowledge is but 



HYMN TO ADVERSITY. 17 

Since sorrow never comes too late, 
And happiness too swiftly flies ? 

Thought would destroy their paradise. 

No more ; — where ignorance is bliss, 
'Tis folly to be wise. loo 



HYMN TO ADVERSITY.* 

— TiTiva — 



Tdv ^povelv BpoTobg 660)- 
aavTa, Tip Tzadn fiadcpv 
Qevra Kvpiuc ex^iv. 

^SCH. AGAM. ver. 181. 

[This Ode, suggested by Diunysius' Ode to Nemesis, v. Ara- 
tus. ed. Oxford, p. 51, translated by S. Meyrick, in Bell's 
Fug. Poetry, vol. xviii. p. 161.] 

Daughter of Jove, relentless power, 
Thou t-amer of the human breast, 



sorrow's spy, it is not safe to know." And Dodsley. Old 
Plays, xi. p. 119: — 

— " Ignorance is safe; 

I then slept happily ; if knowledge mend me not. 

Thou hast committed a most cruel sin 

To wake me into judgment." 

* This Hymn first appeared in Dodsley. Col. vol. iv. to- 
gether with the " Elegy in a Country Churchyard; " and not, 
as Mason says, with the three foregoing Odes, which were 
published in the second volume. In Mason's edition it is 
called an Ode; but the title is now restored, as it was given 
by the author. The motto from ^'Eschylus is not in Dodsley. 

V. i. 'At??, vvlio may be called the goddess cf Adversity, ia 



18 okay's rOK.MS. 

Whose iron scourge and tort'ring hour 

The bad aiFright, afflict the best ! 
Bound in thj adamantine chain, ^ 

The proud are taught to taste of pain, 
And purple tyrants vainly groan 
With pangs unfelt before, unpitied and alone. 

When first thy sire to send on earth 

Virtue, his darling child, design'd, lo 



said by Homer to be the daughter of Jupiter: II. r. 91. 
HpiaSa 6tdg d^vydTTjp 'Attj, ?j Travrac aarai. Perhaps, how- 
ever, Gray only alluded to the passage of J^schylus which he 
quoted, and which describes Affliction as sent by Jupiter for 
the benefit of man. Potter in his translation has had an eye 
on Gray. See his Transl. p. 19. 

V. 2. "Then he, great tamer of all human art," Pope. Dun. 
\. 163. 

V. 3. "Affliction's iron flail.'" Fletcher. Purp. Isl. ix. 28. 

Ibid. In Wakefield's note, he remarks an impropriety in the 
poet joining to a material image, the " torturing hour." If 
there be an impropriety in this, it must rest with Milton, from 
whom Gray borrowed the verse: 

" when the scourge 

Inexorably, and the torturing hour. 

Calls us to penance." Par. Lost, ii. 90. 

But this mode of speech is authorized by ancient and modern 
poets. In Virgil's description of the lightning which the Cy- 
clopes wrought for Jupiter, Mn^. viii. 429. 

" Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosse 
Addiderant, rutili tres ignis, et alitis Austri: 
Fulgorea nunc horrificoa, sonitumque, m.etumque 
Miscebant," &c. 

In Par. Lost, x. 297, as the original punctuation stood: 

" Bound with Gorgonian rigor not to move, 
And with Asphaltic slime." ' 



1 This punctuation is now altered in most of the editions. 
The new reading was proposed by Dr Pearce. 



HYMN TO ADVERSITY. 19 

To thee he gave the heav'nly birth, 

And bade to form her infant mind. 
Stern rugged nurse ! thy rigid lore 
"With patience many a year she bore : 
What sorrow was, thou bad'st her know, u 
And from her own she learn'd to melt at others' woe. 

Scar'd at thy frown terrific, fly 

Self-pleasing Ti'olly's idle brood, ^ 

Wild Laughter, Noise, and thoughtless Joy, 

And leave us leisure to be good. 20 

Light they disperse, and with them go 
The summer friend, the flatt'ring foe ; 



V. 5. 'AdajLtavTtvuv Ssa/iuv ev a^^KTOLg Tvidacg' ^sch. 
Prom. vi. W., from whom Milton. Par. L. i. 48: " In 
adamantine chains, and penal fire." And the expression 
occurs also in the Works of Spenser, Drummond, Fletcher, 
and Drayton. See Todd's note on Milton. " In adamantine 
chains shall Death be bound," Pope. Messiah, ver. 47; and 
lastly, Manil. Astron. lib. i. 921. And Boisson. on Philost. 
Heroic, p. 405. 

V. 7. " Till some new tyrant lifts his purple hand," Pope. 
Two Choruses, ver. 23. Wakefield cites Horace, lib. i. od. 
XXXV. 12: " Purpurci metuunt tyranni.^' Add Tasso. Gier. 
Lib. c. vii. Luke. 

V. 8. " Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.^'' 
Par. L. ii. 703. 

V. 13. An expression similar to this occurs in Sidney. 
Arcadia, vol. iii. p. 100: " 111 fortune, my awful governess." 

V. 16. " Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco." 
Luke. 

V. 20. " If we for happiness cotjld leisure find," 
Hurd's Cowley, vol. i. p. 136; and the note of the editor. 
" And know I have not yet the leisure to be good" Oldham. 
Ode, St. V. vol. i. p. 83. 

V. 22. " For men, like butterflies. 

Shew not their mealy wings, but to the summer." 

Troil. and Cress. A. iii. so. 3. 



20 gray's poems. 

By vain Prosperity receiv'd, 
To her they vow their truth, and are again believ'di 

"Wisdom in sable garb array'd, 25 

Immers'd in rapt'rous thought profound, 

And Melancholy, silent maid. 

With leaden eye that loves* the ground, 

Still on thy solemn steps attend : 

Warm Charity, the gen'ral friend, 30 

With Justice, to herself severe, 
And Pity, dropping soft the sadly-pleasing tear. 

Oh ! gently on thy suppliant's head. 

Dread goddess, lay thy chast'ning hand ! 

Not in thy Gorgon terrors clad, 35 

Not circled with the vengeful band 



Also, •* The common people swarm like summer flies. 
And whither fl3^the gnats, but to the sun." 

Henry VI. P. iii. act 2. sc. 9. " Such summer-birds are men ! '* 
Tim. of Ath. act iii. sc. 7. But the exact expression is George 
Herbert's: " fall and flow, like leaves, about me, or like sum- 
mer-friends, flies of estates and sunshine," Temple, p. 296. 
And (The W. Devil) v. Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. vi. p. 292. 
" One summer she." Quarles. Sion's Elegies, xix. "Ah, sum- 
mer friendship with the summer ends." Mr. Rogers quotes 
Massinger's Maid of Honor, " summer friendship." Gray 
seems to have had Horace in his mind, lib. I. Od. xxxv. 25. 

V. 25. "O'erlaid with black, staid Wisdom's hue." 

II Penser. 16. W. 

V. 28. " With a sad leaden downward cast, 
Thou fix them on the earth as fast." 

II Penser. 43. W. "So leaden eyes." Sidney. Astroph. and 
Stella, Song 7. " And stupid eyes that ever loved the ground," 
Pryden. Cim. and Iphig. v. 57. " Melancholy lifts her head," 
Pope. Ode on St. Gee. v. 30. " The sad companion, dull-eyed 
Melancholy," Pericles, act i. sc. 2. And so we read " leaden 



HYMN TO ADVERSITY. 21 

(As by the impious thou art seen) 
"With thund'ring voice, and threat'ning mien, 
With screaming Horror's fun'ral cry, 
Despair', and fell Disease, and ghastly Poverty : ^ 

Thy form benign, oh goddess, wear, 

Thy milder influence impart, 
Thy philosophic train be there 

To soften, not to wound, my heart. 
The gen'rous spark extinct revive, 46 

Teach me to love and to forgiA^e, 
Exact my own defects to scan. 
What others are to feel, and know myself a Man. 



Contemplation " in Love's Lab. Lost, act iv. sc. 3. In Beau- 
ment. Passionate Madman, act iii. sc. 1 ; 

" A look that's fasteu'd to the ground, 
A tongue chain 'd up without a sound.*' 

V. 31. "To Servants kind, to Friendship clear, 
To nothing but herself severe,^* 

Carew. Poems, p. 87. And 

" Judge of thyself alone, for none there were 
Could be so just, or could be so severe.^' 

Oldham. Ode on Ben Jonson, p. 71, vol. ii. " Forgiving 
others, to himself severe," Drj^den. Misc. vi. 322. " The 
Muses' friend unto himself severe," Waller. Poems, p. 149. 
" Candid to all, but to himself severe," E. Smith. El. on J. 
Philips, V. Lintot. Misc. p. 161. 

Ver. 32. " Ours be the lenient, not unplensing tear," Thom- 
son. Mr. Rogers quotes Dryden. Virg. JEn. x. a " sadly- 
pleasing thought." 

V. 35. " Gorgoneum turpes crinem mutavit in hydros. 

Nunc quoque, ut attonitos formidine terreat hostes.** 

Ovid. Met. iv. 801. 

" Horrentem colubris, vultwjue tmncndam 

Gorgoneo.'' Val. Flac. vi. 175 

Milt Par. L. ii. Gil. " Medusa with Gorg'onian terrors." 



22 gray's poems. 

THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 

A PINDAKIC ODE.* 

[Finished in 1754. Printed together with the Bard, an Ode^ 
Aug. 8, 1757. MS.] 

^covuvra ovveTolaLV kg 
Ae TO ivdv epiJLi]veo)v 

Xari^et. pindar. ol. ii. v. 152. 

I. 1. 
Awake, ^olian Ivre, awake, 
And give to rapture all thy trembling strings. 

Var. V. 1. " Awake, my lyre: ra'y glory, wake." MS 
V. 2. Rapture'] Transport, ms. 



* When the author first published this and the following 
Ode, he was advised, even by his friends, to subjoin some few 
explanatory notes; but had too much respect for the under- 
standing of his readers to take that liberty. Gray. 
V. 1. " Awake, my glory: awake, lute and harp." 

David's Psalms. Gray. 
" Awake, awake, my lyre, 

And tell thy silent master's humble tale." 

Cowley. Ode of David, vol. ii. p. 423. 
Pindar stj'les his own poetry, with its musical accompani- 
ments, Alo?ug /loXnT/, Aio?uSeg ,Yop(5a<, AioXcduv jrvoal ai'/lwv, 
JSolian song, ^^olian strings, the breath of the ^olian flute. 
Gray.^ 

The subject and simile, as usual with Pindar, are united. 
The various soux'ces of poetry, which gives life and lustre to 
all it touches, are here described; its quiet majestic progress 
enriching every subject (otherwise dry and barren) with a 
pomp of diction and luxuriant harmony of numbers; and its 



^ This note was occasioned by a atrange mistake of the 
Critical Rei-iewers, who supposed the Ode addressed to the 
"Harp of ^olus." See Mason. Memoirs, let. 26, sec. 4; and 
Crit. Rev. vol. iv. p. 167. And the Literary Magaz. 1757, 
p. 422; at p. 466 of the same work, is an Ode to Gray on his 
Pindaric Odes. 



THE PKOGliESS OF I'OESY. 23 

From Helicon's harmonious springs 

A thousand rills their mazy progress take : 
The laughing flowers, that round them Wow, ^ 
Drink life and fragrance as they ftow. 
Now the rich stream of music winds along. 
Deep, majestic, smooth, and strong, 



more rapid and irresistible course, when swoln and hurried 
away by the conflict of tumultuous passions. Gray. 

V. 3. Thomson has joined the subject and simile in a pas- 
sage strongly resembling this: 

" In thy full language speaking mighty things. 
Like a clear ton-ent close, or else diffus'd 
A broad majestic stream, and rolling on 
Thro' all the winding harmony of sound." 

Liberty, ii. 257. 
And see Quinctil. Inst. xii. 10. 61. " At ille qui saxa de- 
volvat," &c. 

In Huntingford, Apology for his Monostrophics, p. 80, 
referred to by Wakefield, several pii^sages of Pindar are 
pointed out, to which he supposes that Gray alluded, viz. 01. 
ii. 62, 229. vii. 12. xii. 6. 

V. 4. " The melting voice through mazes running." 

Milt. L'Allegro, 142. Luke. 
V. 5. " Albaque de viridi risfrunt hlia prato," Petron. 
cap. 127. " Ridenti colocasia fundet acantho," Virg. Eel. 
iv. 20; and Achilles Tatiu? has the expression, rd TreraAov t^ 
^€(j)Vfj(jj yeTid. See Burni. nii Ovid. v. ii. p. 1023. 

V. 6. " Eibant violaria tunteni," Virg. Georg. iv. ver. 32. 
W. 

" And mounting in loose robes the skies 
Shed light and fragrance as nhe flies. ''^ 

Green. Spleen, v. 79. 
V. 7. This couplet seems to have been suggested by some 
lines of Pope. Hor. Epist. II. ii. 171: 

• «' Pour the full tide of eloquence along, 
Serenely pure, and yet divinely strong." 
VVakefield refers to Pope. Cecilia, 10: 

" While in more lengthened notes, and slow, 
The deep majestic solemn organs blow." 
Dr. Berdmore of the Charter-House, in his pamphlet on 
Literary Resemblance, p. 16, supposes that Gray had Horace 
in his mind. Od. III. xxix. 32. 



21: gkay's poejvis. 

Thro' verdant vales, and Ceres' golden reign ; 
Now rolling down the steep amain, 10 

Headlong, impetuous, see it pour; 
The rocks and nodding groves rebellow to the roar. 

I. 2. 

Oh ! Sov'reign of the willing soul. 
Parent of sweet and solemn-breathing airs, 
Enchanting shell ! the sullen Cares 15 

And frantic Passions hear thj soft controul. 
On Thracia's hills the Lord of War 

Var. V. 11. "With torrent rapture, see it pour." MS. 



V. 9. Shenstone. Inscr. " Verdant vales and fountains 
bright." Luke. 

V. 10. " Immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore." 

Hor. Od. iv. 2. 8. 

v. 12. " And rocks the bellowing voice of boiling seas 
resound," Dryden. Virg. Georg. i. " Rocks rebellow to the 
roar," Pope. Iliad. 

v. 13. Power of harmony to calm the turbulent sallies of 
the soul. The thoughts are borrowed from the first Pythian 
of Pindar. Gray. 

V. 14. Milton. Coraus, 555, " A soft and soleuin-breathing 
sound." See Todd's note. 

" V. 15. " While sullen Cares and witlicr'd Age retreat," 
Busden. Court of Venus, p. 101 . " Revengeful Carts and sullen 
Sorrows dwell," Dryden. Virgil, ^n. vi. 247. " Core shuns thy 
soft approach, and sullen flies away," Dryden. Ceyx. vol. iv. 
p 33, the same expression (>ceur? in many other poets. 

V. 17. " The God of War 

Was drawn triumphant on his iron car." 

Dryden, vol. iii. 60. ed. Warton. 
And Collins in his Ode to Peace, ver. 4 : 

" When War, by vultures drawn afar. 
To Britain bent his iron car.'^ 
" Mavortia Thrace," Statii Ach. 1. 201, Theb. vii. 34, and 
" Mars Thracen oecupat," Ovid. Ar. Am. ii. ver. 588. Virg. 
^n. iii. 35. " Gradivumque patrem (Jcticis qui prassidet 
wris." V. Bentl. on Hor. Od. i. xxv li). 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 25 

Has curb'd the fury of his car, 

And dropt his thirsty lance at thy command. 

Perching on the sceptred hand 20 

Of Jove, thy magic lulls the feather'd king 

With ruffled plumes and flagging wing : 

Quench'd in dark clouds of slumber lie 

The terrors of his beak, and lightnings of his eye. 

1.3. 
Thee the voice, the dance, obey, as 

Temper'd to thy warbled lay. 

Var. V. 23. Dark] Black. MS. 

V. 19. " Winn'st from his fatal grasp the spear.'* 

Collins. Ode to Mercy, ver. 5. 

In the Lusus Poetici«of Jortin (Hymn to Harmony, p. 45), 
published in 1722, is the following couplet, strongly resembling 
Gray's, and from the same source : 

*' Thou mak'st the God of War forsake the field. 
And drop his lance, and lay aside his shield." 
See also Ovid. Fasti, iii. v. 1: " Bellice, depositis clypeo pau- 
lisper et hasta, Mars, ades," Claudiaui Praef. in Rufin. lib. ii. 
" Thirsty blade," Spens. F. Q. i. v. xv. 

V. 20. This is a weak imitation of some beautiful lines in 
the same ode. Gray. Pyth. i. ver. 10; and see D. Stewart. 
Philos. Essays, p. 373. For an error in the imagery of this 
line, see Class. Journ. No. xiii. p. 285. 

V. 21. " Every fowl of tyrant wing. 

Save the Eagle feather'd King." 

Shakes. Pass. Pilg. xx. 

V. 22. H. Walpole, in describing the famous Boccapadugli 
eagle, of Greek sculpture, says: " Mr. Gray has drawn the 
* flagging wing.' " See "Works, vol. ii. p. 463. Philips (Past. 
5.) " She hangs her flagging wings ; " Luke. Add A. Behn 
on the D. of Buckingham, v. Works, v. ii. p. 208: " Now 
with their Taroken notes and flagging wing." See Wakef. on 
Virg. 4eorg. iv. 137; G. Steevens quotes Ronsard, Odexxii. 
ed. 1632, fol. 

V. 25. Power of harmony to produce all the graces of 
motion in the body. Gray. 

V. 26. " Tempering their sweetest notes unto thy lay," 
C 



26 gray's poems. 

O'er Idalia's velvet-green 

The rosy-crowned Loves are seen 

On Cytherea's day; 

With antic Sport, and blue-eyed Pleasures, 

Frisking light in frolic measures ; 

Now pursuing, now retreating, 

Now in circling troops they meet : 
To brisk notes in cadence beating, 

Var. V. 30. Sportl Sports, ms, 

V. 34. In cadence'] The cadence, ms. 



Fletcher, P. Island, c. ix. s. iii. and Lycidas, 32. Luke. 
V. 27. " At length a fair and spacious green he spide. 
Like calmest waters, plain; like velvet, soft." 

Fairfax. Tasso, xiii. 38. 
" She rears her flowers, and spreads her velvet-green.'' 

Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. p. 128. 
This expression, it is well known, has met with reprehension 
from Dr. Johnson; who appears by his criticism to have 
supposed it first ^ introduced by Gray. It was numbered, 
however, among the absurd expressions of Pope, by the authors 
of the Alexandriad, (some of the heroes of the Dunciad,) see 
p. 288. It occurs in a list of epithets and nouns which Po]jo 
had used, and which these authors held up to ridicule. 
V. 30. " I'll charm the air to give a sound. 

While YOU perform your antic round." 

Macb. act. iv. sc. 1. W. 
V. 31. "In friskful glee, their frolics play, 

Thoms. Spring. Luke. 
V. 32. Wakefield refers to Callimachi Hymn. Dian. 3. and 
Horn. II. S. 593. 
V 35. Mapfiapvydg ■&r}dTO ttoSuv d^avfia^e 6e dvfM. 

Horn. Od. 0. ver. 265. Gray. 

" Or rustling turn the many -twinkling leaves 
Of aspin tall." 

Thoms. Spring, 157. W, 



1 Shakespeare has, " Make boot upon the ?ummer's velvet 
bvds," Hen. V. act i. sc. 2. 



THE PROGiiESS OF POESY. 27 

Glance their many-twinkling feet. as 

Slow melting strains their Queen's approach de- 
clare : 
Where'er she turns, the Graces homage pay. 
With arms sublime, that float upon the air, 
In gliding state she wins her easy way : 
O'er her warm cheek, and rising bosom, move 4o 
The bloom of young Desire and purple light of 
Love. 

V. 36. Compare the following stanza of a poem by Barton 
Booth, in his Life, written in 1718, published 1733: 
*' Now to a slow and melting air she moves. 
So like in air, in shape, in mien. 
She passes for the Paphian queen; 
The Graces all around her play. 
The wond'ring gazers die away; 
Whether her easy body bend. 
Or her faire bosom heave with sighs ; 
Whether her graceful arms extend^ 
Or gently fall, or slowly rise ; 
Or returning or advancing. 
Swimming round, or sidelong glancing. 
Strange force of motion that subdues the soul.*' 
And Apuleii. Metam. Lib. x. p. 349. ed. Delph. 
V. 37. " For wheresoe'er she turn'dher face, they bow*d.' 

Dryden. Flower and Leaf, v. 191. 
V. 39. " Incessu patuit Dea," Virg. ^n. i. 405. And see 
Heyne's quotation from Eustathius. " On all sides round 
environ'd, wins his way." Par. Lost, ii. 1016. 
V. 41 Aafiirst 6' em Tropfvpeyai 

. ILapetTjaL fug epcorog. 

Phrynicus apud Athenaeum. Gray. 

" lumenqae juventae 

Purpureum, et Isetos oculis afflarat honores.*' 
Virg. Mn. i. 594. W. Add Ovid. Amor. ii. 1. 38: "Pur- 
pureas quae mihi dictat Amor." And ix. 34: " Notaque 
purpureus tela resumit Amor." And Art. Amor. i. 232. Fast. 
vi. 252. "purpurea luce." Dryden. Brit. Rediviva, p. 93 : 
*' Breath'd Honour on his eyes, and his own purple light." 
Pope. Hor. Od. iv. 1. '* Smiling loves and young desires." 
Rogers. 



28 gray's poems. 

II.]. 

Man's feeble race what ills await ! 
Labour, and Penury, the racks of Pain, 
Disease, and Sorrow's weeping train, 

And Death, sad refuge from the storms of fate ! 45 
The fond complaint, my song, disprove, 
And justify the laws of Jove. 
Say, has he giv'n in vain the heav'nly Muse ? 
Night and all her sickly dews, 
Her spectres ^an, and birds of boding cry, fio 
He gives to range the dreary sky ; 



V. 42. To compensate the real and imaginary ills of life, 
the Muse was given to mankind by the same Providence that 
sends the day, by its cheerful presence, to dispel the gloom 
and terrors of the night. Gray. 

V. 46. "His fond complaints," Addison. Cato, A. 1, 6. 
V. 49. Wakefield refers to Milton. Hymn to the Nativity, 
xxvi. and Par. Reg. iv. 419. But a passage in Cowley ia 
pointed out by his last editor. Dr. Hurd, as alluded to by 
Gray, vol. i. p. 195: 

*« Night and her ugly subjects thou dost fright. 
And Sleep, the lazy owl of night; 
Asham'd and fearful to appear. 

They skreen their horrid shapes with the black hemisphere *' 
Thomson. Spring, " Sickly damps." 

V. 50. " Love not so much the doleful knell 

And news the boding night-birds tell." 

Green. Grotto, 126. 
*' Obscoenique Canes, importun<Bque Volucres 

Signa dabant." Virg. Georg. i. v. 470 

*' He withers at the heart, and looks as wan 
As the pale spectre of a murder'd man." 

Dryden. Pal. and Arcite. B. 1 
V. 62. ** Or seen the morning's well-appointed star 
Come marching up the eastern hills afar " 

Cowley. Gray. 
The couplet from Cowley has been wrongly quoted by Gray, 
and so continued by his different editors. It occurs in Brutus, 
an Ode, etan. iv. p. 171. vol. 1. Hurd's ed. : 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 29 

Till down the eastern cliffs afar 
Hyperion's march they spy, and glitt'ring shafts 
of war. 

Var. V. 52. 

" Till fierce Hyperion from afar 
Pours on their scattered rear, his glitt'ring shafts of war. 
Hurls at their flying, 
o'er seatter'd 



Till o'er from far 

Hyperion hurls around his." ms. 



" One would have thought 't had heard the morning crow. 
Or seen her well-appointed star 
Come marching up the eastern hills afar." 

In Grray's Letter to Dr. Wharton, containing a Journal of 
his Tour to the Lakes, he says: " While I was here, a little 
shower fell ; red clouds came marching up the hills from the 
east," &G. Mason's ed. 4. p. 175, and Warton's Note on 
Milton, p. 304. 

V. 53. In Mant's edition of Warton (vol. ii. p. 41), and in 
Steevens's note on Hamlet (act i. sc. 2), it is remarked that 
all the English poets are guilty of the same false quantity, 
with regard to this word, except Akenside, as quoted by 
Mant, Hymn to the Naiads, 46 ; and the author of ' Puimus 
Troes ' by Steevens. See Dodsley. Old Plays, vii. p. 500. 
The assertions, however, of these learned editors are not 
correct; as will appear from the following quotations: 

" That Hyperion far beyond his bed 

Doth see our lions ramp, our roses spread." 

Drummond (of Hawthornd.) Wand. Muses, p. 180. 

" Then Hyperion's son, pure fount of day. 
Did to his children the strange tale reveal." 

West. Pindar, 01. viii. 22, p. 63. 

Gray has used this word again with the same quantity: 
Hymn to Ignorance, v. 12: " Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his 
annual race." ^ 

V. 53. " Non radii soils, ^neque lucida tela diei," Lucret. 



1 The old English Poets (as Jortin remarks) did not regard 
quantity. Spenser has lole, Pylades, Caphareus, Rhoetean, 
Amphyon. Gascoyne in his " Ultimum Vale: " " Kinde Ei'ato, 



30 gray's poems. 

II. 2. 

In climes beyond the solar road, m 

Where shaggy forms o'er ice-built mountains roam, 
The Muse has broke the twilight gloom 

To cheer the shivering native's dull abode. 
And oft, beneath the od'rous shade 
Of Chili's boundless forests laid, 
She deigns to hear the savage youth repeat, eo 

Var. V. 57. Buried natives, ' sMvering ' in the Marg. MS. 
Chill abode, ' dull ' in the Marg. MS. 

i. 148. vi. 39. Ausonii Mosell. 269 : " Lucifcrique pavent letalia 
tela diet." W. Add Eurip. Phoen. 171. ed. Person. 
Ewoif ofioia (j)2,eye6o)v 
(^oXatalv asTdoo. 

V. 54. Extensive influence of poetic genius over the re- 
motest and most uncivilized nations : its conneetion with liberty, 
and the virtues that naturally attend on it. [See the Erse, 
Norwegian, and Welsh fragments ; the Lapland and American 
songs.] 

" Extra anni solisque vias — " Virg. -^n. vi. 795. 
" Tutta lontana dal camin del sole. Petr. Canz. 2. Gray. 

" Out of the solar walk, and heaven's high way," Dryden. 
Threnod. August, st. 12. "Inter solisque vias, Arctosque 
latentes," Manil. i. 450. Pope also has this expression: 
" Far as the solar walk and milky way," Essay on Man, ch» 1. 
102. Stat. Sylv. iv. 3. 156. " Ultra sidera, flammeumque 
sulem." 'He/LiOio KeXevdovg. Dionys. Geogr. v. 17. 

v. 56. "The nymphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets 
mourn." Milton. Hymn to Nativ. st. xx. W. 

and wanton Thalia." Turberville in the " Ventrous Lover," 

stanz. i: 

*' If so Leander durst, from Abydon to Sest, 

To swim to Hero, whom he chose his friend above the rest." 
Lord Sterline in bis " Third Hour," st. xiii. p. 50: "Then 
Pleiades, Arctuvus, Orion, all." Id. p. 87: " Which carrying 
Orion safely to tho shore." But Orion has all the syllables 
doubtful. See Erythrsei, Ind. Virg. art. Orion. Chaucer and 
Surrey have Citheron. 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 31 

111 loose numbers wildly sweet, 
Their feather-cinctur'd chiefs and dusk j loves. 
Her track, where'er the goddess roves, 
Glorv pursue, and gen'rous Shame, 64 

Th' unconquerable Mind, and freedom's holy flame. 
XL 3. 
Woods, that wave o'er Delphi's steep, 



V. 59. "Earth was to thein a bouadless forest wild." 

Thorn. S. of Ind. c. ii. st. xiv. Luke. 

V. 61. *' Or sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, 
Warble his native woodnotes mld.*^ 
Milton. L'AUeg. 133, W. Hor. Od. iv. ii. 12, " Numeris- 
que fertur lege solutis." 

V. 62. "Girt with feather'd cincture." Par. L. ix. 1116. 

V. 62. "Reap their own fruits and woo their sable loves.'" 
Pope, Winds. For. 410. Gray's epithet, as Dr. Warton re- 
marks, is the more correct. He has used it again: " The 
dusky people drive before the gale," Frag, on Educ. and Gov. 
V. 105. 

V. 64. This use of the verb plural after the first substantive 
is in Pindar's manner, Nem. x. 91. Pyth. 4. 3 18. Horn. 11. E. 
774. W. " I cannot help remarking (says Dugald Stewart, 
Philos. of the Human Mind, vol. i. p. 505, 8vo.) the effect of 
the solemn and uniform flow of verse in this exquisite stanza, 
in retarding the pronunciation of the reader, so as to arrest 
his attention to every successive picture, till it has time to 
produce its proper impression." 

V. 65. Akens. PI. of Im. i. 468: "Love's holy flame." 
Luke. •^The unconquerable mind," is in Hor. Od. ii. 1. 22. 
"■ Et cuncta terrarum subacta, prseter atrocem animum Cato- 
nis." 

V. 66. Progress of Poetry from Greece to Italy, and from 
Italy to England. Chaucer was not unacquainted with the 
writings of Dante or of Petrarch. The Earl of Surrey and 
Sir Thomas Wyatt liad travelled in Italy, and formed their 
t.aste there. Spenser imitated the Italian writers ; Milton 
improved on them : but this school expired soon after the Re- 
storation, and a new one f rose on the French model, which 
has subsisted ever since. Gray. 

** With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving." 

Milton. Hymn to Nativ. xix W. 



32 gray's poems. 

Isles that crown th' JEgean deep, 
Fields, that cool Ilissus laves, 
Or where Mseander's amber waves 

In lingering lab'rinths creep, w 

How do your tuneful echoes languish, 
Mute, but to the voice of anguish ! 

Where each old poetic mountain 
Inspiration breath'd around ; 

EVry shade and hallow'd fountain 7« 

Murmur'd deep a solemn sound : 

Var. V. 76. " Murmur'd a celestial sound.^' MS 

V. 67. So Dionsyii Perieg. v. 4: 

kv yap EKeivCf) 

Hdca x^'^'^1 o-TE VTjaoQ aTveipiTog koTe^avciTaL 
Ovid. Metain. v. 388: "Silva coronal aquas." And Seneca 
CEdip. 488: "Naxos Mgs&o redimita Ponto." And Jortin, in 
Lusus Poetici, vol. i. p. 4: 

" Cyclades sparsas ubi Naxos inter 
Surgit jEgeo redimita Ponto." 
V. 69. " There Susa by Choaspes, amber stream," Par. Reg. 
iii. 288. " Rolls o'er Elysian flow'rs her amber stream," Par. 
Lost, iii. 359. Callimachi Cer. 29: 

TO d\ cjot' oMnTpivov v6o)p 

i^'^aoav avedve. W, 
To which add Eurip. Ilipp. ver. 741. " Purior electro oam- 
pum petit amnis," Virg. Georg. iii. 520. 

V. 70. " Non secus ac liquidis Phrygiis Maeandros in arvia 
Ludit, et ambiguo lapsu refiuitque fluitque," Ov. Met. viii. 
162. 

V. 71. In the Quarterly Review for July, 1814, p. 314, 
some lines are quoted from Addison's letter from Italy, con- 
taining an idea similar to these of Gray: " Poetic fields encom- 
pass me around," &c. 

V. 73. "Like that poetic mountain to be hight," G. West. 
Educ. C. 1. Luke. 

V. 75. Virg. Eel. i. 53, " fontes saeros." Luke. 

V. 80. " Servitude that hugs her chain," Ode on the In- 
stall. V. W 



THE PROGKESS OF POESY. 33 

1'ill the sad Nine, in Greece's evil hour, 

Left their Parnassus for the Latian plains. 
Alike they scorn the pomp of tyrant Power, 

And coward Vice, that revels in her chains, so 
When Latium had her lofty spirit lost, 
They sought, oh Albion ! next thy sea-encircled 
coast. 

III. 1. 

Far from the sun and summer-gale, 
In thy green lap was Nature's darling laid, 
What time, where lucid Avon stray'd, 85 

To him the mighty mother did unveil 
Her awful face : the dauntless child 



V. 83. " Piu lontan del Ciel," Dante. II Inferno, c. ix. 
V. 84. " Nature's darling." Shakespeare. Gray. — This 
expression occurs in Cleveland. Poems, p. 314: 
" Here lies within this stony shade, 
Nature's darling; whom she made 
Her fairest model, her brief story. 
In him heaping all her glory." 
Stat. Theb. iv. 786, " At puer in gremio vernse telluris.'* 

" The flowery May, who from her green lap throws 
The yellow cowslip, and the pale primrose." 

JVlilton. Son. on May Morn. Gray. 

V. 85. Senec. Thyest. 129, " gelido flumine lucidus Al- 
pheos.^' Luke. 

V. 86. " The mighty mother, and her son who brings 
The Smithfield muses to the ear of kings." 

Pope. Dune. i. 1. 
"A cloud of fogs dilates her awful face.^^ Id. i. 262. W. 
See also Virg. Georg. i. 4G6, by Dryden: 

«* On the green turf thy careless limbs display. 
And celebrate the mighty mother^ s day." 

V. 87. " Animosus infans," Hor. iii. 4. 20. Luke. Wake- 
field refers to Virg. Eclcg. iv. CO: " Incipe, parve puer, risu 
cognoscere matrem." And Berdmore, in liis Literary Resem- 
blances, p. 40, to the description of tbt infant Hercules in 



31 - GilAT'S i'OEMS. 

StretcK'd fortli his little arms and smil'd. 
" This pencil take (she said), whose colours clear 
Richly paint the vernal year : w 

Thine too these golden keys, immortal Boy ! 
This can unlock the gates of joy ; 
Of horror that, and thrilling fears, 
Or ope the sacred source of sympathetic tears." 
III. 2. 
Nor second He, that rode sublime w 

Var. V. 93. Horror] Terror. MS. 



Theoc. Idyll, xxv. 55. But the two lines in Gray are the 
same as two in Sandys. Ovid, p. 78, ed. 12mo. (see Metam. iv, 
515.) 

•* the child 

Stretched forth its little arms, and on him smil'd.** 

See also Catulli Ep. Jul. et Manl. c. Ixi. ver. 216. 

" Parvolus 

Matris e gremio suse 
Porrigeas teneras manus, 
Dulce rideat." 
V. 89. Milton. P. L. v. 24, " How nature paints her co- 
lours." Luke. 
v. 91. Similar, perhaps, aadapav uvoi^av- 
Ta liXfida (ppsvuv 

Eurip. Med. 658. 
" Nature, which favours to the few. 
All art beyond, imparts, 
To hiin presented, at his birth. 

The key of human hearts.'^ Young. Resig. 
** Yet some there be, that with due steps aspire 
To lay their hands upon that golden key 
That opes the palace of eternity." Milton. Com. 13. W* 
V. 92. See Soph. Antig. v. 803. 
V. 95. Milton. P. L. vi. 771. Gray. 
V. 97. This alludes to Milton's own picture of himself: 

' • Up led by thee 

Into the Heaven of Heavens, I have presum'd 
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air." 

Par. L. vii. 12, also Eleg. v. 15. 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 35 

Upon the seraph-wings of Extasy, 
The secrets of th' abyss to spy. 

He pass'd the flaming bounds of place and time ; 
The living throne, the sapphire blaze, 
Where angels tremble while they gaze, loo 

He saw ; but, blasted with excess of light, 
Clos'd his eyes in endless night. 
Behold, where Dryden's less presumptuous car 
Wide o'er the fields of glory bear 104 

Two coursers of ethereal race, [pace. 

With necks in thunder cloth'd, and long-resounding 

V. 98. •• Flammantia mcenia mundi," Lucret. i. 74. Gray, 
See also Stat. Silv. iv. 3. 156: " Ultra sidera, flammeumque 
solem." And Cicero de Finibus, li. 31. Hor. Epist. I. xiv. 9, 
V. 99. *' For the spirit of tlie living creature was in the 
wheels. And above the firmament that was over their heads, 
was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire 
stone. This was the appearance of the glory of the Lord." 
Ezek. i. 20, 26, 28. Gray. — " Ay sang before the saphir' 
colored throne," Poem at a solemn Music (Milton), ver. 7. 
" Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne. 

The cherub Contemplation." II. Pens. ver. 53. 
*' Whereon a sapphire throne inlffid, with pure 

Amber, and colours of the showery arch." Par. L. vi. 758. 
" He on the wings of cherub rode sublime, 

On the crystalline sky, in sapphire throned." Ibid. ver. 771. 
V. 101. " Dark with excess of bright thy skirts appear." 
Milt. P. L. iii. 380. Luke. 
V. 102. '0(pda\uG)v fiev aiiepos- 6l6ov 6' 7]6slav aoiSffv. 

Horn. Od. 0. ver. 64. Gray. 
'* In aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem," Virg. ^n. x. 746. 
W. " And closed her lids, at last, in endless night." Dryden. 
V. 103. See Pope. Account of Dryden, Ep. I. b. ii. ver. 267: 
*' Waller was smooth ; but Dryden taught to join 
The varying verse, the full resounding line, 
The long majestic march, and energy divine." 
V. 105. " ethereal race " is a phrase of Pope, v. Hom. 
11. xi. 80. 



36 geay's poems. 

III. 3. 

Hark, his hands the lyre explore ! 

Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er, 

Scatters from her pictur'd urn 

Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, no 

But ah ! 'tis heard no more 

Oh ! lyre divine, what daring spirit 
Wakes thee now ? Tho' he inherit 

Var. V. 108. Bright-eyed} Full -plumed. MS. 



V. 106. « Hast thou clothed his neck with thunder'? " 
Job. — This verse and the foregoing are meant to express the 
stately march and sounding energy of Dryden's rhymes. 

Crray. 
" Currum, geminosque jugales 
Semine ab sethereo, spirantes naribus ignem." 
Virg. ^n. vii. 280. W. " The long-resounding course.** 
Thomson. Winter, 775, Hymn. 85. 

V. 110. "Words that weep, and tears that speak," Cowley. 
Prophet, vol. i. p. 113. Gray. " Her words burn as fire,'* 
Eccles. ix. 10. Rogers. " Oaths are burning words," Dekker. 
Satirom. p. 65, 4to. 

V. 111. We have had in our language no other odes of the 
sublime kind, than that of Dry den on St. Cecilia's Day; for 
Cowley, who had his merit, yet wanted judgment, style, and 
harmony, for such a task. That of Pope is not worthy of 
so great a man. Mr. jVJason, indeed, of late days, has 
touched the true chords, and with a masterly hand, in some 
of his choruses; above all in the last of Caractacus: 

•' Hark ! heard ye not yon footstep dread % " &c. Gray. 

V. 113. So' Elegy, St. xii: " Or wake to extasy the living 
lyre.^' And Lucret. ii. 412: 

" Ac JVlusa^a mele per chordas organicei quae 
Mobilibus digitis expergefacta figurant." 
And Callimach. Hymn. Del. 312. W. 

V. 114. *•' They shape his ample pinions swift as darted 
flame," Young. N. Thoughts. 

V. 115. Aiof Tcpog bpvixa d-dov, Olymp. ii. 159 Pindar 
compares himself to that bird, and his enemies to ravens that 
croak and clamour in vain below, while it pursues its flight. 



THE PROGRESS OF POESY. 87 

Nor the pride, nor ample pinion, 

That the Theban eagle bear, us 

Sailing with supreme dominion 

Thro' the azure deep of air : 
Yet oft before his infant eyes would run 

Such forms as glitter in the Muse's raj, 

Var. V. 118. 

" Yet when they first were open'd on the day 
Before his visionary eyes would run." MS. 

V. 119. ForTHs'] " shapes." MS. 



regardless of their noise. Gray. See Spenser. P. Q. V. iv. 42 : 
** Like to an eagle in his kingly pride 
Soaring thro' his wide empii;e of the aire 
To weather his brode sailes." 
Cowley, (i. 166. ed. Hvird.) in his Translation ot Hor. Od. 
IV ii. calls Pindar " the Theban swan: " 

" Lo ! how the obsequious wind and swelling air 
The Theban Swan does upward bear." 
Pope, Temple of Fame, 210, has copied Horace, and yoked 
four swans to the car of the poet: 

" Four swans sustain a car of silver bright." 
See also Berdmore, Specimens of Lit. Resemblance, p. 102. 

V. 117. Eurip. Med. 1294: eg aldepog (3ddog. " Coeli 'fre- 
tum," Ennius apud Non. Maroell. 3. 92. Lucret. ii. 151. 
V. 277: " Aeris in magnum fertur mare." W. Oppian. 
Kvvriy. iii. 497: 

'Hepog vipCTvopoicrLV emTrXoovac KsTievdoig. 

Timon of Athens, act iv. sc. 2. p. 12G. ed. Steevens: " Into 
this sea of air." And Cowley's Poems : " Row thro' the 
trackless ocean of the air.^' 

V. 118. See the observation of D. Stewart, Philosophy of 
the Human Mind, p. 486 : " that Gray, in describing the 
infantine reveries of poetical genius, has fixed with exquisite 
judgment on that class of our conceptions which are derived 
from visible objects." And see alsc his Philosophical Essays, 
p. 231. There is a passage in Sir W. Temple. Essay on 
Poetry, vol. iii. p. 402, which has been supposed to have been 
the origin of this passage. See Gentleman's Magazine, yoL 
Ixi. p. 91. 



38 gray's poems. 

"With orient hues, unborrow'd of the sun : 120 

Yet shall he mount, and keep his distant way 
Beyond the limits of a vulgar fate, 
Beneath the Good how far — but far above the 
Great. 

Vax. V. 122. *« Yet never can he fear a vulgar fate." MS. 



THE BARD. 

A PINDAKIG ODE. 

[This Ode is founded on -a tradition current in Wales, that 
Edward the First, when he completed the conquest of that 
country, ordered all the Bards that fell into his hands to be 
put to death. Gray. (See Barrington on the Statutes, 
p. 358; Jones's Belies, vol. i. p. 38; Sayer's Essays* p. 20.) 

I. 1. 

" Ruin seize thee, ruthless king ! 
Confusion on thy banners wait ; 



V. 120. Spenser. Hymn: " With much more orient hew.''* 
Milt. Par. L. i. 545: "with orient colours.*^ Luke. 

V. 123. " Still show how much the good outshone the great." 
K. PhUips, fol. p. 133. 

" I have sometimes thought (says Prof. D. Stewart,) that 
in the last line of the following passage, Gray had in view the 
two different effects of words already described; the effect of 
some, in awakening the powers of conception and imagination; 
and that of others in exciting associated emotions: 
" Hark, his hands the lyre explore ! 
Bright-eyed Fancy, hov'ring o'er. 
Scatters from her pictur'd urn 
Thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.** 
V. Elem. of the Phil, of the H. Mind, vol. i. p. 507. 

V. 1. Shakes. Hen, VI. 2nd part, act i. sc. 3: " See, ruth- 
less Queen, a hapless father's tears." Luke. 



THE BAI.D. 39 

Tho' fami*d by Conquest's crimson wing, 

They mock the air with idle state. 
Helm, nor hauberk's twisted mail, s 

Not e'en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail 

To save thy secret soul from nightly fears. 

From Cambria's curse, from Cambria's tears ! " 
Such were the sounds that o'er the crested pride 

Of the first Edward scatter'd v/ild dismay, lo 
As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side 



V. 2. ** Confusion waits." K. John, IV. sc. ult. Rogers, 
V. 3. ** Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky, 

And fan our peopk cold." Macbeth, act i. sc. 2. 

V. 4. " Mocking the air with colours idly spread." 

King John, act v. sc. 1. Gray. 
V. 5. The hauberk was a texture of steel ringlets, or rings 
interwoven, forming a coat of mail that sat close to the body, 
and adapted itself to every motion. Gray. 
"With helm and hauberk." 

Rob. of Gloucester, vol. i. p. 297. 
" Hauberks and helms are hew'd with many a wound," 
Dryden. Pal. and Arcite, lib. iii. v. 1879. Fairfax, in his 
Trans, of Tasso, has joined these words in many places ; as 
canto vii. 38: "Now at his hdm^ now at his hawberk bright." 
See also p. 193, 199, 299, edition 1624, folio. 

V. 7. " Within her secret mind," v. Dryden. ^n. iv. 

Rogers. 

V. 9. " The crested adder's pride." 

Dryden. Indian Queen. Gray. 

V. 11. Snowdon was a name given by the Saxons to that 
mountainous tract which the Welsh themselves call Craigian- 
eryri: it included all the highlands of Caernarvonshire and 
Merionethshire, as far east as the river Conway. E,. Ilygden, 
speaking of the castle of Conway, built by King Edward the 
First, says, " Ad ortum amnis Conway ad clivum mentis Ere- 
ry; " and Matthew of Westminster, (ad ann. 1283) " Apud 
Aberconway ad pedes montis Snowdoniee fecit erigi castrum 
forte." Gray 

The epithet " shaggy," applied to " Snowdon's side," is 
highly appropriate, as Leland says that great woods clothed 



40 GitAi'ti roiiMS. 

He wound with toilsome march his long array. 
Stout Glo'ster stood aghast in speechless trance : 
" To arms ! " cried Mortimer, and couch'd his 
quiv'ring lance. 

I. 2. 

On a rock whose haughty brow, m 

Frowns o'er old Conway's foaming flood, 

Robed in the sable garb of woe, 
With haggard eyes the poet stood ; 
(Loose his beard, and hoary hair 



the different parts of the mountain in his time: see Itin. v 45. 
Dyer. Ruins of Rome, p. 137: 

" as Britannia's oaks 
On Merlin's mount, or Stiowdon^s rugged sides. 
Stand in the clouds." 
Lycidas, 54, " Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high," v. Par. 
L. vi. 645. " By the shaggy tops," <fcc. Todd's note. 
V. 12. " In long array," Dryden. E. xi. Rogers. 
V. 13. Gilbert de Clare, surnamed the Red, earl of Grlou- 
cester and Hertford, son-in-law to King Edward. Gray. 
V. 14. Edmond de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. Gray 
They both were Lord Marchers, whose lands lay on the 
borders of Wales, and probably accompanied the king in this 
• expedition. Gray. 

" Hastam quassatque trementem." 

Virg. iEn. xii. 94. Luke. 
v. 15. Horn. II. T. ver. 151: 'Ett* d(ppvai KalTuKoTuovrjg. 
And Mosch. Id. ii. 48: 'Ett' ocppvog alytaAolo. Ap. Rhod. i. 
ver. 178. St. Luke, iv. 29. And Virg. Greorg. i. 108: "Ecce 
supercilio clivosi tramitis." W. " A huge aspiring rock, 
whose surly brow," Daniel. Civ. Wars, p. 58. 

V. 16. " Above the foamy flood." v. Dyer. R. of Rome. 

Luke. 
V. 17. " Perpetuo TncErore, et ni^ra ves^e senescant," Juvenal. 
Sat. X, 245. W. Also Propert. Eleg. IV. vii. 28: " Atram 
quis lacrymis incaluisse tugam.^' Senec. H. Fur. 694, '* ater- 
que luctus sequitur. ' 

V. 19. The image was taken from a well-known picture of 
Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the vision of Eze- 



THE BAUD. 41 

Stream'd, like a meteor, to the troubled air) 20 
And with a master's hand, and prophet's fire, 
Struck the deep sorrows of his lyre. 

" Hark, how each giant-oak, and desert cave, 
Sighs to the torrent's awful voice beneath ! 
O'er thee, oh King ! their hundred arms they 
wave, 25 

Revenge on thee in hoarser murmurs breathe ; 
Vocal no more, since Cambria's fatal day. 
To high-born Hoel's harp, or soft Llewellyn's lay. 



kiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed to be 
originals, one at Florence, the other in the Duke of Orleans' 
collection at Paris. Gray. 

V. 20. " Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind." 

Par. L. i. ver. 535. W. See Todd's note. 
" The meteors of a troubled heaven." 

Shakesp. K. Henry IV. pt. i. act i. sc. 1 Luke. 

Todd mentions a passage very similar to the one in the text: 
" The circumference of his snowy beard like the streaming rays 
of a meteor appeared," Persian Tales of Inatulla, vol. ii. p. 41. 
This image is often used metaphorically, as Stat. Theb iii. 
332. And see Manil. Astron. i. 836. 

Ford, in his Perkin Warbeck, p. 25, ed. Weber: 

" since the heard 

Of this wild comet conjur'd into France." 

V. 23. "The woods and desert caves." Lycidas. 

V. 26. " The stream that down the distant rocks hoarse mur- 
mnring fell." Thomson. Luke. 

V. 27. See some observations on the poetical and proper use 
of "vocal," as used by G-ray in this place, in Huntingford. 
Apolog. for the Monostr. p. 31. 

V. 28. Hoel is called high-born, being the son of Owen Gwy- 
nedd, prince of JSTorth Wales, by Finnog, an Irish damsel. He 
was one of his father's generals in his wars against the Eng- 
lish, Flemings, and Normans, in South Wales; and was a fa- 
mous bard, as his poems that are extant testify. See Evan. 
Spec. p. 26, 4to. ; and Jones. Relics, vol. ii. p. 36, where he is 

D 



42 gray's poems. 

I. 3 

** Cold is Cadwallo's tongue, 

That husli'd the stormy main : 39 

Brave Urien sleeps upon his craggy bed : 

Mountains, ye mourn in vain 

Modred, whose magic song 
Made huge Plinlimmon bow his cloud-topt head. 



called the " Princely Bard Who says that he wrote eight 
pieces, five of which are trti,nslated by him in his interesting 
publication. The whole are given in Mr. Owen's translation 
in Mr. Southey's Madoc, vol. ii. p. 162. 

V. 28. In a Poem to Llewellyn, by Einion the son of Gui- 
gan, a similar epithet is given to him (p. 22): " Llewellyn is 
a tender-hearted prince." And in another Poem to hiin, by 
Llywarch Brydydd y Moch (p. ?>2): "Llewellyn, though in 
battle he killed with fury, though he burnt like an outrageous 
fire, yet was a mild prince, when the mead horns were distri- 
buted." Also in an Ode to him by Llygard Gwr (p. 39), he 
is called " Llewellyn the mild, and prosperous governor of 
Gwynedd." Llewellyn's ' soft Lay ' is given by Jones in his 
llelics, vol. ii. p. 64. 

V. 29. Cadwallo and Urien are mentioned by Dr. Evans in 
bis " Dissertatio de Bardis," p. 78, among those bards of whom 
no works remain. See accouat cU' Urien'' s death in Jones. 
Relics, i. p. Vd. lie is celebrated in the Triads, " as one of 
the three bulls of war." Taliessin dedicated to him upwards 
iif twelve poems, and wrote an elegy on his death: he was 
slain by treachery in the year 5G0. Modred is, I suppose, the 
fauDus " Myrddin ab Morvryn," called Merlyn the Wild; a 
disciple of Taliessin, and bard to the Lord Gwenddolaw ab 
Goidiaw. He fought under King Arthur in 542 at the battle 
of Camlau, and accidentally slew his own nephew. He was 
reckoned a truer prophet than his predecessor, the great magi- 
cian Merdhin Ambrose. See a poem of his called the " Or- 
chard," in Jones. Relics, vol. i. p. 24. I suppose Gray altered 
the name "euphoni3e gratia; " as I can nowhere find a bard 
mentioned of the name of " Modred.' 

V. 30. "Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath. 

That the riulc sua grew civil at her song." 

Mids. N. Dream, act ii. sc. 2. V. . Add Milt. Comus, 86. 



THE BAUD. 43 

On dreary Arvon's shore they lie, 35 

Smear'd with gore, and ghastly pale ; 
Far, far aloof th' affrighted ravens sail; 

The famish'd eagle screams, and passes by. 
Dear lost companions of my tuneful art, 

Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, 40 



** Who with his soft pipe and smooth dittied song 
Well knows to still the wild winds when they roar. 
And AwiA the waving woods." Luke. 
V. 34. " Cloud-eapt towers," Tempest, act iv. sc. 1. W. — 
Drayton has used this image very poetically in his Poly-Olbion, 
vol. iii. p. 112G, in the speech of Skedow: 

" But from my ghjrious height into its depth I pry. 
Great hills far under me, but as my pages lie; 
And when my lii-im. of clouds upon my head I take." 
iSo in the tragedy of Nero, 1(324, p. 27: "Hebrus stood still, 
Pangt/ia bow'd hia heud.'^ 

V. 35. The shores of Gaeimarvonshire opposite the isle of 
Anglesey. Gray. 

Y. 36. " Sinear'd with gore, a ghastly stream." King of 
France's Daughter: Percy. Reliques, iii. 164; and Macbeth, 
act ii. sc. 2, " Smmr the sleepy grooms with blood." 

V. 37. This image may be found in Lucret. vi. ver. 1213. 
xii. 565. Ovid. Met. vii. 550. Lucan. vi. ver. 625. Stat. 
Theb. i. ver. 624. Prudent. Steph. 5, 400. It is also in 
Dryden. Pal. and Arcite, ver. 1142: 
" The fowl that scent afar the borders fly. 

And shun the bitter blast, and wheel about the sky," 

V. 38. Camden and others observe, that eagles used an- 
nually to build their aerie among the rocks of Snowdon, which 
from thence (as some think) were named by the Welsh Craig- 
ian-eryri, or the crags of the eagles. At this day (I am told) 
the highest puiiit of Snowdon is called the Eagle's Nest. That 
bird is certainly no strangei to this island, as the Scots, and 
the people of Cumberland, Westmoreland, &e. can testify it 
even has built its nest upon the peak of Derbyshire. [See 
Willoughby's Ornithol. by Ray.] Gray. " The Tempest sees 
their strength, and sighs and passes by," v. Swift's Mise 
ii. 189 

V. 40. " As dear to rne as are the ruddy drops 
That visit my sad heart." 

■lul. Cicsar, act ii. sc. 1. Gray 



14 gkay's foems. 

Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart, 

Ye died amidst your dying country's cries — 
No more I weep. They do not sleep. 

On yonder cliffs, a grisly band, 
I see them sit, they linger yet, 48 

Avengers of their native land : 
With me in dreadful harmony they join. 
And weave with bloody hands the tissue of thy line. 
II. 1. 

" Weave the warp, and weave the woof, 
The winding sheet of Edward's race. so 



See Callimach. H. Dian. v. 211. Theocr. Id. cap. 53. 
Quint. Smyrn. x. 475. Catul. xiv. 1. Virg. Mn. iv. 31. 
Otway, in his Venice Preserved, act v. p. 309, was more im- 
mediately in Gray's mind: 

" Dear as the vital vearmth that feeds my life. 

Dear as these eyes that weep in fondness o'er thee." 
In Sydney's Arcadia, vol. ii. p. 415; " Oh, mother, said 
Amphialus, speak not of doing them hurt, no more than to 
mine eyes or my heart., or if I have any ttiing more dear than 
eyes or heart unto me." King Lear, act 1. sc. 2: "Dearer 
than eye-sight." 

V. 42. " And greatly falling with a falling state." Pope. 
" And couldst not fall, but with thy country's fate," 

Dryden. W. 
V. 44. I have thought that this image was shadowed by 
the poet from the following passage of Stat. xi. 420. The 
third line is almost translated: 

" Ipse quoque Ogygios monstra ad gentilia manes 
Tartareus rectcr porta jubet ira reclusa. 
Montibus msidunt patriis, tristique corona 
Infecere diem, et vinci sua crimina gaudent." 

''For neither were ye playing on the steep, where your old 
bards, the famous Druids, lie." Lycidas. 

V. 48. See the Norwegian ode (the Fatal Sisters) that 
follows. Gray. 

V. 49. " No wool to work on, neither weft nor warp." 

Swift's Misc. viii. p. 198, ed. Nioh. 



THE BARD. 45 

Give ample room, and verge enough 
The characters of hell to trace. 
Mark the year, and mark the night, 
"When Severn shall re-echo with affright 
The shrieks of death, thro' Berkley's roof that ring, 
Shrieks of an agonizing king ! sa 

She-wolf of France, with unrelenting fangs, 
That tear'st the bowels of thy mangled mate, 

From thee be born, who o'er thy country hangs 

The scourge of heav'n. What terrors round him 

wait ! 60 



V. 51. " I have a soul that like an ample shield 

Can take in all, and verge enough for more.*' 

Dry den. Sebastian, act i. sc. 1. 
V. 55. Edward the Second, cruelly butchered in Berkley 
Castle. Gray. See Drayton. Barons' Wars, v. Ixvii. 
" Berkley, whose fair seat hath been famous long. 
Let thy sad echoes shriek a deadly soxmd 
To the vast air ; complain his grievous wrong. 
And keep the blood that issued from his wound." 
V. 56. This line of Gray is almost in the same words aa 
Hume's description, vol. ii. p. 359: " The screams with which 
the agonizing king filled the castle." 

V. 57. Isabel of France, Edward the Second's adulterous 
queen. Gray. 

This expression is from Shakespeare's Henry VI. pt. iii. 
act i. sc. 4: "She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of 
France." Latin writers have used the same language. Apu- 
leius, speaking of the sisters of Psyche: " Perfidce lupulas ne- 
farias insidias comparant." And Ausonius, ed. Tollii, p. 23: 
" Et mater est vere lupa." Plutarch in Vita Romuli, c. iv. 
p. 84. ed. Reiske. AOT'HAS ycip EKolcyvv 'Ol AATINOI tuv 
re dr]pio)v raf TivKoivaQ^ koX tow yvvatKuv rug eraLpovaag, &c 
V. 59. " This evening from the sun's decline arriv*d. 
Who tells of some infernal spirit seen." 

P. L. iv. 792. Rogers. 
V. 60. Triumphs of Edward the Third in France. Gray. 
" Circumque atr^e formidinis ora, 
Iraeque, insidiaeque, Dei comitatus, aguntur." 

Virg. ^n. xii. 336. W. 



46 gray's poems. 

Amazement in his van, with flight combin'd, 
And sorrow's faded form, and solitude behind. 
II. 2. 

" Mighty victor, mighty lord ! 
Low on his funeral couch he lies ! 

No pitying heart, no eye, aiFord '"J 

A tear to grace his obsequies. 

Is the sable warrior fled? 
Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead. 
The swarm, that in thy noontide beam were born ? 

Var. V. 63. Victor'\ Conqueror, ms. 

V. 64. His] The. ms. 

V. 65. No, no] What, what. MS. 

V. 69. Hover'd in thy noontide ray. MS. 



V. 61. Cowley has a couplet with similar imagery, vol. i. 
p. 254: 

*' He walks about the perishing nation. 
Ruin behind him stalks, and empty desolation.'* 
And Oldham in his Ode to Homer, stan. iii. 
" Where'er he does his dreadful standard bear. 

Horror stalks in the van, and slaughter in the rear.'* 
*' On he went, and in his van confusion and aimaze, 

While horror and affright brought up the rear." Swift 
V. 62. " Care sat on his faded cheek." V. Milt. P. L. i 
601. 

V. 64. Death of that king, abandoned by his children, and 
even robbed in his last moments by his courtiers and his mis- 
tress. Gray. 
**Lo! there the mighty warrior lies." Oldham. B. of Saul. 

V. 65. The same words, with the same elliptical expression, 
occur in the Instal. Ode, vi. : 

" Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye. 
The flower unheeded shall descry.^' 
On this ellipsis see Jortin. Obs. on Spenser: Tracts, vol. i p. 91. 
V. 67. Edward the Black Prince, dead some time before hia 
father. Gray. 

*• Hence Edward dreadful with his sable shield.^* 

Prior. Poems, p. 210. 



THE BARD. 47 

Gone to salute the rising morn. to 

Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, 

Wliile proudlj riding o'er the azure realm 
In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; 

Var. v. 70. Morn] Day. ms. 

V. 71. Fair laughs, fyc. 

" Mirrors * of Saxon truth and loyalty 
Your helpless, old, expiring master view ! 
They hear not : scarce religion does supply 
Her mutter'd requiems, and her holy dew. 
Yet thou, proud boy, from Pomfret's walls shalt send 
A sigh, and envy oft thy happy grandsire's end." 



* ** Mirror of ancient faith, in early youth 
Undaunted worth, inviolable truth." 

Dryd. S. vi. lloge 



In Peacham's 'Period of Mourning,' 1613, a similar epi- 
thet is given, but from a different reason: 

" Appeared then in armes a goodly prince 
Of swarthy hew, by whom there hung a launce 
Of wondrous length, preserved ever since ; 
He overthrew, at Poitiers, John of Fraunce. 
A dial his device, the stile at one — 
And this, ' No night, and yet my day is done.' 

V. 69. So in Agrippina: 

" around thee call 

The gilded swarm, that wantons in the sunshint 
Of thy full favour." 

V. 71. Magnificence of Richard the Second's reign. See 
Froissard, and other contemporary writers. Gray. See M. of 
Venice, act ii. s. 6. " How like a younker," &e. Spenser. 
Vision of the World's Vanity, " Looking far forth," &c. And 
Vision of Petrarch, c. ii. " After at sea a tall ship did ap- 
pear," &c., which passages are too long for transcription. 

V. 72. "Coeruleo pollens conjunx Neptunia regno." 

Virg. Cir. 483. Luke. 

V. 73. So Pope, Donne, Sat. iv. 230, who has used the same 
words on the same subject: " Top-gallant he, and she in all 
her trim " 



48 gray's poems. 

Youtli on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm ; 
Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, 7a 
That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his ev'ning 
prej. 

II. 3. 

" Fill high the sparkhng bowl, 
The rich repast prepare ; 

Reft of a crown, he yet may share the feast: 
Close by the regal chair so 

** The goodly London in her gallant trim. 



And on her shadow rides in floating gold." 

Dryden. An. Mirab. 151. 
V. 74. " Ipse gubernabit residens in puppe Cupido," Ov. 
Heroid. Ep. xv. 215. And so Petrarch: " E al governo, siede 
'1 Signor, anzi '1 nimico mio," Son. clvi. 

V. 75. So in his Fragment on Education and Government, 
V. 48: 

*• And where the deluge burst with sweepy sway." 
The expression is from Dryden. See Virg. Georg. i. 483 : 

*' And rolling onwards with a sweepy sway.*' 
And in Granada, act v. sc. 1 : 

** That whirls along with an impetuous sway. 

And like chain-shot sweeps all things in the way.* 
And Ov. Met. " Rushing onwards with a sweepy sway." 
And Ma., vii. " The branches bend before their sweepy sway.*'' 

V. 76. " So like a lion that unheeded lay. 

Dissembling sleep and watchful to betray, 
With inward rage he meditates his prey." 

Dryden. Sig. and Guise. 
*' Fermenting tempest brew'd in the grim evening sky." 

Thomson. 
V. 77. Richard the Second, as we are told by Archbishop 
Scroop and the confederate Lords in their manifesto, by Thomas 
of Walsingham, and all the older writers, was starved to death. 
The story of his assassination by Sir Piers of Bxon is of much 
later date. Gray. 

For the profusion of Richard II. see Harding. Chron. quoted 
in the Preface to Mason's Hoccleve, p. 5; Daniel. Civil Wars, 



THE i',ARD. 49 

Fell Thirst and Famine scowl 

A baleful smile upon their baffled guest. 
Heard ye the din of battle bray, 

Lance to lance, and horse to horse ? 

Long years of havock urge their destined 

course, as 

And thro' the kindred squadrons mow their way. 

Var. V. 82. A baleful smile\ A smile of horror MS. 



iii. 87; and Pennant. London, p. 89, 4to. Dr. Berdmore com 
pares this passage to the following lines of Virgil, ^n. vi. 603 : 

" Lucent genialibtis altis 
Aurea fulcra toris, epulceque ante ora paratcB 
Regijico luxu: Furiarum maxima juxta 
Adcubat, et manibus prohibet contingere mensas, 
Exsurgitque facem adtollens, atque intonat ore." 

V. 79. " Such is the robe that kings must wear. 
When death has rrfl their crown." 

Mallett. Will, and Marg. st. 3. W. 
V. 80. «« Regales inter mensas." Virg. iEn. i. 686. "Sate 
Matilda in the regal chair." Davenport. K. John and Ma- 
tilda, p. 25, 4to. 

V. 82. 
*' He ceas'd: for both seemed highly pleas'd; and Death 
Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile." Par. L. ii. 845. W. 

So Horn. II. E. 212: Meidioov fSXoavpolat Trpoadmaat,. And 
other examples cited in the note of Newton to the Par. Lost. 

V. 83. Ruinous wars of York and Lancaster. Gray. 

V. 83. " Arms on armour clashing brayed." 

Milt. Par. L. vi. 209 Luke. 

V. 84. " Harry to Harry shall, not horse to horse." Shakes. 
Hen. IV. pt. i. act iv. sc. i. " Man to man, and horse to 
horse." Massing. M. of Honor. Rogers. 

V. 86. " Cognatasque aeies," Lucan. i. 4. W. — And so 
in Sidon. Apollin. xv. 28: " Cognatam portans aziem." In 
Dryden, All for Love, act i we find an expression similar to 
the text, 

" Mow them out a passage. 
And entering where the foremost squadrons yield." 



50 gray's roEMS. 

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame, 
"With manj a foul and midnight murder fed, 

Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame, 
And spare the meek usurper's holy head. 9o 

Above, below, the rose of snow, 

Twin'd with her blushing foe, we spread : 

Var. V. 87. Ye] Grim. ms. V. 90. Holy} Hallow'd. MS. 



V. 87. Henry the Sixth, George Duke of Clarence, Edward 
the Fifth, Richard Duke of York, &o., believed to be mur- 
dered secretly in the Tower of London. The oldest part of 
that structure is vulgarly attributed to Julius Cassar. Gray. 

V. 89. Margaret of Anjou, a woman of heroic spirit, who 
struggled hard to save her husband and her crown. 

Gray. 
Ibid. Henry the Fifth. Gray. 

V. 90. Henry the Sixth, very near being canonized. The 
line of Lancaster had no right of inheritance to the crown. 

Gray. 

V. 91. The white and red roses, devices of York and Lan- 
caster. Gray. 

" no, Plaiitagenet, 

*Tis not for fear, but anger — that thy c&eeks 
Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our roses.^* 

Henry VI. pt. i. act ii. so. 4. 

V. 93. The silver boar^ was the badge of Pdchard the Third; 
whence he was usually known in his own time by the name of 
the Boar. Gray. 

" Nor easier fate the bristled boar is lent." 



1 The crest or bearing of a warrior (says Scott in his notes 
to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, p. 300) was often used as » 
*' nom de guerre." Thus Richard ITT. acquired his well- 
known epithet, — "the Boar of York." In the violent satire 
on Cardinal Wolsey, commonly but erroneously imputed to 
Di\ Bull, the Duke of Buckingham is called the Be/mtiful 
iSivin; and the Duke of Xorfolk, or E;irl of Surrey, the White. 
Lion. See Dr. Nott. Surrey, i. p. 302, SOI. And see the 



THE BARD. 51 

The bristled boar in infant-gore 
Wallows beneath the thorny shade. 

Now, brothers, bending o'er the accursed loom, as 

Stamp we our vengeance deep, and ratify his doom. 
III. 1. 
" Edward, lo ! to sudden fate 

(Weave we the woof. The thread is spun.) 
Half of thy heart we consecrate. 

See Mirror for Magis. p. 417. Anon. 62, 69, 80. Again, 
" At Stonie Stratford being upon my way. 
The bloodie bore my uncle that did aime." 
Mirror for Magis. p. 740. " The bristled baptist boar,'* Dry- 
den. The Pi'inces are called the roses: 

" Oh ! noble Edward, from whose royal blood 
Life to their infant bodies nature drew. 
Thy roses both are crop, e'en in the bud.*' 
And p. 745, with the same allusion: 

" Why didst thou leave that bore in time t' ensue 
To spoil those plants that in thy garden grew." 
See also the Battle of Flodden Field, st. 255; and Ford. Par- 
kin Warbeck, act i. sc. 1. p. 12. ed. Weber. 

V. 96. 
" If Fate weave common thread, I'll change the doom. 
And with new purple weave a nobler loom." Dryd. Seb. 
V. 98. " Yet rather let him live, and twine 

His woof of dayes with some thread stolen from mine." 
Cartwright. Poems, p. 239. 'Ayafj,Efj.vovi Tror/zov v^aiveu 
Tryphiod. v. 409. Nonni. Dion. iv. 244. 

V. 99. Eleanor of Castile died a few years after the con- 
quest of Wales. The heroic proof she gave of her affection 



Lay of the Last Minstrel, cant. iv. st. xxx: 
" Yet hear, quoth Howard, calmly hear, 
Nor deem my words the words of fear; 
For who, in field or foray slack. 
Saw the Blanche Lion e'er fall back'? " 
And so in Henry VI. part ii. act v. sc. 2. Warwick is called 
the Bear, from his father's badge, old Neville's crest: 
** The rampant Bear chained to the ragged sta.ff " 



62 gray's poems. 

(The web is wove. The work is done.) io» 

Stay, oh stay ! nor thus forlorn 
Leave me unbless'd, unpitied, here to mourn : 
In yon bright track, that fires the western skies, 
They melt, they vanish from my eyes. 104 

But oh ! what solemn scenes on Snowdon's height 

Descending slow their glittering skirts unroll ? 
Visions of glory, spare my aching sight ! 

Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul ! 

Var. V. 101. Thus-\ Here. ms. 

V. 102. Me unblessed, unpitied, here} Your despairing 

Caradoc. MS. 
V. 103. Track} Clouds. MS. 
V. 104. Melt} Sink. MS. 

V. 105. Solemn scenes'] Scenes of Heaven. MS. 
V. 106. Glittering] Golden. MS 



for her lord is well known. The monuments of his regret 
and sorrow for the loss of her, are still to be seen at North- 
ampton, Gaddington, Waltham, and other places. Gray. 

V. 106. Milt. P. L. xi. 332. « Though but his utmost 
skirts of glory.*' Luke. 

V. 107. From Dryden. State of Innocence, act iv. sc. 1: 

" Their glory shoots upon my aching sight." 

V. 109. It was the common belief of the Welsh nation, 
that King Arthur was still alive in Fairyland, and would 
retrvrn again to reign over Britain. 

'V. 110. Both Merlin and Taliessin had prophesied that the 
Welsh should regain their sovereignty over this island ; which 
seemed to be accomplished in the house of Tudor. Gray. 

V. 111. " Throngs of knights and barons bold," Milton. 
L'Alleg. 119. Luke. 

V. 112. *' His starry front low rooft beneath the skies,'* 
Milton. Ode on the Passion, iii. 18. " Sideribus similes 
oculos," Ovid. Met. i, 499. " Heu ! ubi siderei vultus," 
Stat. Theb. v. 613. "Sidereo laeta supercilio," Claud, xv. 
V. 58; and " Sidereos oculos," Manilius Ast. iv. 905; and, 
lastly, " Gli occhi sereni, et le stellanti ciglia," Petr. Son 
clxvii. V. 9. 



THE BAiiD. 53 

No more our long-lost Arthur we bewail. io9 

All hail, ye genuine kings, Britannia's issue, haill 
III. 2. 

" Girt with many a baron bold 
Sublime their starry fronts they rear ; 

And gorgeous dames, and statesmen old 
In bearded majesty, appear. 

In the midst a form divine ! us 

Her eye proclaims her of the Briton-line ; 

Var. V. 109, 110. No more our long-lost, ^•c.] 

" From Cambria's thousand hills a thousand strains 
Triumphant tell aloud, another Arthur reigns." MS. 
V. Ill, 112. Girt with, ^c] 

*' Youthful knights, and barons bold 
With dazzling helm, and horrent spear " MS. 



V. 114. It has been remarked that there is an inaccuracy 
in this expression, as the Bard, whose own beard is compared 
to a meteor, would not be struck with the dignity of the short 
curled beards of Elizabeth's days. See Selections from Glentle- 
man's Magazine, vol. ii. p. 237. 

V. IIG. So Peacham, in his ' Period of Mourning,' p. 16, 

speaking of Elizabeth: 

" Where when I saw that brow, that cheeke, that eye 
Hee left imprinted in Eliza's face." 

Wakefield quotes a stanza from Spenser. Hobbinol's Dittie, m 
praise of Eliza: 

" Tell me, have ye seene her angelike face, 

Like Phoebe fayre ! 
Her heavenly haveour, her princely grace 

Can you well compare 1 
The redde rose medled, with the white yfere 
In either cheek depeincten lively chere; 

Her modest eye. 

Her majestye, 
When have you seene the like but there 1 " 

England's Helicon, p. 13; and Spenser, ed. Todd, i. 64; and 
the note of T. War ton 



54 gray's poems. 

Her lion-port, her awe-commanding face, 

Attemper'd sweet to virgin-grace. 

What strings symphonious tremble in the air, • 
What strains of vocal transport round her play 
Hear from the grave, great Taliessin, hear ; 12] 
They breathe a soul to animate thy clay. 

Bright Rapture calls, and soaring as she sings, 

Waves in the eye of heav'n her many-colour'd 
wings. 

Var. V. 117. Her, Aer] A, an. MS. 



V. 117. Speed, relating an audience given by Queen Eliza- 
beth to Paul Dzialinski, ambassador of Poland, says, " And 
thus she, lion-like rising, daunted the malapert orator no less 
with her stately port and majcstical deporture, than with the 
tartnesse of her princelie checkes." Gray. See Puttenha,m, 
Engl. Poesy, iii. e. 24. p. 249, quoted by 13r. Nott on Surrey, 
vol. i. p. 3U7. See Ellis's Lett, on Engl. Histy. iii. 41: a copy 
of this speech is in MS. Laudsdowne, No. 94, art. 50. 

V. 121. Taliessin, chief of the bards, flourished in the sixth 
•century. His works arc still preserved, and his memory held 
in high veneration among his countrymen, dray. On his 
supposed sepulchre, see Wyndham. Tour in Wales, p. 100. 

See Evans. Spec. p. 18, who says, "Taliessin's poems, on 
account of their great antiquity, are very obscure." There is 
a great deal of the Druidical cabala introduced in his works, 
especially about the transmigration of souls. Evans says that 
ho bad fifty of Taliessin's poems, and that many si)urious 
ones are attributed to him At p. 5(j, Evans ha,s translated 
one of his odes, beginning "Fair El})bin, cease to weep; " 
comforting his friend on his bad success in the salmon-fishery. 
There is a fuller account of him in Jones. Relics, vol. i. p. 18, 
21. vol. ii. p. 12, 19, 31, 34, where many of his poems are 
translated; and Pennant's Wales, vol. ii. p. 316; and Tur- 
ner's Vind. of the Ancient British Poems, p. 225, 237. 

V. 123. From Congreve. Ode to Lord Godolphin, st. vi-' 

" And scars with rapture while she sings." 

V. 124. "It was as glorious as the tyf of Heaven." Cowley. 
Add Warton. note to x^lilton, p. 87, " interest that waves on 



THE BARD. 53 

III. 3. 

" The verse adorn again 125 

Fierce war, and faithful love, 
And truth severe, by fairy fiction drest. 

In buskin'd measures move 
Pale grief, and pleasing pain, 
With horror, tyrant of the throbbing breast. i30 

A voice, as of the cherub-choir, 
Gales from blooming Eden bear ; ^ 
And distant warblings lessen on my ear, 

That lost in long futurity expire. 



party-col our 'd wings." Pope. Dune. iv. 538. And, "Colours 
that change where'er they wave their wings." Rape of the 
Lock, ii. 68. Wakefield cites the Tempest, act iv. sc. 1: 
"Hail, manj'-colour'd messenger." See Milt. Par. L. vii. 
641: "Wings he wore of many a coloured plume." 

" Her angel's face 
As the great eye of Heaven shined bright." 

Spenser. F. Q. cant. iii. 

Ovid. Met. iv. 228. " Mundi oculus." And Milton. II 
Ptas. ver. 141: " Hide me from day^s garish eye." Par. Lost, 
b. V. ver. 171: "Thou ,siiri of this great world, both eye and 
soul." Shakesp. Pdch. 11. act iii. sc. 2: "The searching eye 
of Heaven is hid." 

V. 126. "Fiei'ce wars and faithful loves shall moralize my 
song." Spenser. Proeme to the F. Q. Gray. 

V. 127. " Truth, Wisdom, Sanctitude severe and pure." 

Milt. P. L. iv. 293. Luke. 

V. 128. Shakespeare. Gray. "Ennobled hath the bus- 
kined stage." Milt. II Pens. 102. 

V. 129. F. Queen, vi. c. 9. s. x. "With sweet pleasing 
payne." Dryden. Virg. Eel. iii. 171. "Pleasing pains of 
love." JJuke. 

V. 130. "Imaginative woe my throbbing hreast inspires." 

Thomson. 

V 133. The succession of poets after Milton's time. 

Gr%y 



56 gray's roEMS. 

Fond impious man, tliink'st thou yon sanguine 

cloud, 18S 

Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of 
day? 
To-morrow he repairs the golden flood. 

And warms the nations with redoubled raj. 
Enough for me ; with joy I see 



V. 135. This apostrophe with its imagery seems taken from 
Vida: 

" Ira pie, quid furis 1 

Tene putas posse illustres abscondere coeli 
Aurieomi flammas, ipsumque extinguere solem 1 

Forsitan humentem nebulam proflare, brevemque 
Obsessis poterid radiis obtendere nubem. 
Erumpet lux ; crumpet rutilantibus auris 
Lam pas; et auriflua face, nubila differet omnia." 

Vida3 Hymnus D. Andreee Apostolo. v. 99. T. i. p. 335. 
Steevens refers to " Fuimus Troes," act i. sc. 1 : 

" Think ye the smoky mist 
Of sun-boil 'd seas can stop the eagle's eye 1 " 
but a closer coincidence is in Dekker's Play, " If this be not 
a good play," &c. p. 73. 

" Think'st thou, base lord. 

Because the glorious sun behind black clouds 
Has awhile hid his beams, he's darken'd for ever, 
Eclips'd never more to shine 1 " 

V. 137. " And yet anon repairs his drooping head." Lyci- 
das, 169. "So soon repairs her light, trebling her new-born 
raies," Fletcher. Purple Island, vi. 64. "That never could 
he hope his waning to rep^irr,'" 11). st. 70. Add Hor. Od. iv. 
7. 13. " Damna tamen celeres repurant coelestia lunse." Lu- 
cret. V. 733, On the Moon, " Atque alia illius reparari in parte 
locoque." Young. N. Thoughts, "A golden flood of endless 
day." Luke. 

V. 141. There is a passage in the Thebaid of Statius, iii. 81, 
similar to this, describing a bard who had survived his com- 
panions : 

" Sed jam nudaverat ensem 
Magnanimus vates et nunc trucis ora tyranni. 
Nunc ferrum aspectans, nunquam tibi sanguinis hujus 



THE BARD. 57 

The diff'rent doom our fates assign. i4o 

Be thine despair, and sceptred care ; 
To triumph, and to die, are mine." 
He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's 

height 
Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless 
night.* 



Jus erit, aut magno feries imperdita Tydeo 
Pectora. Vado equidem exultans, ereptaque fata 
Insequor, et comites feror expectatus ad umbras. 
Te superis, fratrique. 

Compare also the conclusion of the first Olymp. of Pindar, 
ver. 184, which Grray seems to have had in his mind: 

EiT/ G£ re TOVTOV 

'Ttpov xpovov Trarelv, £/j£ 
Te Toaaade viKa^opoig 
*Ofj.iXelv. K. T. X. 

This similarity has apparently struck the author of the late 
Translations, as I judge by his language : v. R. Heber. Poems, 
p. 94. 

V. 143. " Medias prmceps tunc fertur in undas, Lucan. ix. 
122. " Praeoeps aerii specula de montis in undas, Deferar; 
extremum hoc munus morientis habeto," Virg. Eel. viii. 58. 



* The original argument of this ode, as Mr. Gray had set 
it down in one of the pages of his common-place book, was as 
follows: " The army of Edward I., as they march through a 
deep valley, (and approach Mount Snowdon, ms.) are suddenly 
stopped by the appearance of a venerable figure seated on the 
summit of an inaccessible rock, who, with a voice more than 
human, reproaches the king with all the misery and desolation 
(desolation and misery, MS.) which he had brought on his 
country; foretells the misfortunes of the Norman race, and 
with prophetic spirit declares, that all his cruelty shall never 
extinguish the noble ardour of poetic genius in this island; 
and that men snail never be wanting to celebrate true virtue 
and valour in immortal strains, to expose vice and infamous 
pleasure, and boldly censure tyranny and oppression. His 

E 



58 gray's poems. 

song ended, he precipitates himself from the mountain, and is 
swallowed up by the river that I'ulls at its foot." 

" Fine (says Mr. Mason) as the conclusion of this ode is at 
present, I think it would have been still finer, if he could 
have executed it according to this plan; but, unhappily fur 
his purpose, instances of English poets were wanting. Spen- 
ser had that enchanting flow of verse vvL>ich was peculiarly 
calculated to celebrate virtue and valour; but he chose to cele- 
brate them, not literally, but in allegory. Shakespeare, who 
had talents for every thing, was undoubtedly capable of 
exposing vice and infamous pleasure; and the drama was a 
proper vehicle for his satire; but we do not ever find that he 
professedly made this his object ; nay, we know that, in one 
inimita;ble character, he has so contrived as to ma.ke vices of 
the worst kind, such as cowardice, drunkenness, dishonesty, 
and lewdness, not only laughable, but almost amiable; for 
with all these sins on his head, who can help liking Falstaff 1 
Milton, of all our great poets, was the only one who boldly 
censured tyranny and oppression: but he chose to deliver this 
censure, not in poetry, but in prose. Dryden was a mere 
court parasite to the most infamous of all courts. Pope, with 
all his laudable detestation of corruption and bribery, was a 
Tory; and Addison, though a Whig, and a fine writer, was 
unluckily not eui.'Ugh of a poet fur his purpose. On these 
considerations Mr. iiray was necessitated to change his plan 
towards the coiiclusiuu: hence we perceive, that in the last 
epode he praises S^^enser only for his allegory, Shakespeare 
for his powers of vuving the passio7is, and Milton for his epic 
excellence. I remember the ode lay unfinished by him for a 
year or two on this very account; and I hardly believe that 
it would ever have had his last hand, but for the circumstance 
of his hearing Parry play on the Welsh harp at a concert at 
Cambridge, (see Letter xxv. sect, iv.) which he often declared 
inspired him with the eunclusiun. 

" Mr. Smith, the musical composer and worthy pupil of Mr. 
Handel, had once an idea of setting this ode, and of having 
it perfurmed by way of serenata or oratorio. A common 
friend of his and Mr. Gray's interested himself much in this 
design, and drew uut a clear analysis of the ode, that Mr. 
Smith might more perfectly understand the poet's meaning. 
He conversed also with Mr. Uray on the subject, who gave 
him an idea fur the overture, and^mai'ked also some passages 
in the ode, in order to ascertain which should be recitative, 
which air, what kind of air, and how accompanied. This 
design was, however, not executed; and therefore I shall 
only (in order to give the reader a taste of Mr. Gray's musical 
feelings) insert in this place what his sentiments were con- 
oeming the overture, ' It should be so contrived as to be a 



THE BARD. 59 

proper introduction to the ode ; it might consist of two move- 
ments, the first descriptive of the horror and confusion of 
battle, the last a march grave and majestic, but expressing 
the exultation and insolent security of conquest. This move- 
ment should be composed entirely of wind instruments, except 
the kettle-drum heard at intervals. The da capo of it must 
be suddenly broke in upon, and put to silence by the clang 
of the harp in a tumultuous rapid movement, joined with the 
Foice, all at once, and not ushered in by any symphony. The 
harmony may be strengthened by any other stringed instru- 
ment; but the harp should every where prevail, and form the 
continued running accompaniment, submitting itself to nothing 
but the voice.' 

" I cannot (adds Mr. Mason) quit this and the preceding 
ode, without saying a word or two concerning the obscurity 
which has been imputed to them, and the preference which, 
in consequence, has been given to his Elegy. It seems as if 
the persons, who hold this opinion, suppose that every species 
of poetry ought to be equally clear and intelligible : than 
which position nothing can be more repugnant to the several 
specific natures of composition, and to the practice of ancient 
art. Not to take Pindar and his odes for an example, (though 
what I am here defending were written professedly in imita- 
tion of him,) I would ask, are all the writings of Horace, his 
Epistles, Satires, and Odes, equally perspicuous '? Among 
his odes, separately considered, are there not remarkable 
differences of this very kind 1 Is the spirit and meaning of 
that which begins, ' Descende coelo, et die, age, tibi&,' Ode 
iv. lib. 3, so readily comprehended as ' Persicos odi, puer, 
apparatus,' Ode xxxviii. lib. 1. And is the latter a finer 
piece of l_^rical composition on that account 1 Is ' Integer 
vitse, scele'risque purus,' Ode xxii. lib. 1, superior to ' Pin- 
darum quisquis studet asmulari,' Ode ii. lib. 4 ; because it 
may be understood at the first reading, and the latter not 
without much study and reflection'? Now between these odes, 
thus compared, there is surely equal difference in point of 
perspicuity, as between the Progress of Poesy, and the Pros- 
pect of Eton College; the Ode on the Spring, and the Bard. 
* But,' say these objectors, ' the end of poetry is universally 
to please. Obscurity, by taking off from our pleasure, destroys 
that end.' I will grant that if the obscurity be great, con- 
stant, and insurmountable, this is certainly true; but if it be 
only found in particular passages, proceeding from the nature 
of the subject and the very genius of the composition, it does 
not rob us of our pleasure, but superadds a new one, which 
arises from conquering a difficulty; and the pleasure which 
accrues from a difficult passage, when well understood, pro- 
vided the passage it.self be a fine one, is always more perma- 



60 gray's poems. 

nent than that which we discover at the first glanco. The 
Lyric Muse, like other fine ladies, requires to be courted, and 
retains her admirers the longer for not having yielded too 
readily to their solicitations. This argument, ending as it 
does in a sort of simile, will, I am persuaded, not only have 
its force with the intelligent readers (the 2TNET0I), but 
also with the men of fashion : as to critics of a lower class, 
it may be sufficient to transcribe, for their improvement, an 
unfinished remark, or rather maxim, which I found amongst 
our author's papers; and which he probably wrote on occasion 
of the common preference given to his Elegy. ' The Gout 
de comparaison (as Bruyere styles it) is the only taste of 
ordinary minds. They do not know the specific excellence 
either of an author or a composition: for instance, they do 
not know that TibuUus spoke the language of nature and love; 
that Horace saw the vanities and follies of mankind with the 
most penetrating eye, and touched them to the quick; that 
Virgil ennobled even the most common images by the graces 
of a glowing, melodious, and well-adapted expression : but 
they do know that Virgil was a better poet than Horace, and 
that Horace's Epistles do not run so v/ell as the Elegies of 
Tibullus.' " 



61 
ODE FOR MUSIC. 

(iRREGULAK.) 

This Ode was performed in the Senate-House at Cambridge, 
July Ij 1769, at the installation of His Grace Augustus 
Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Grrafton, Chancellor of the Univer- 
sity. (This Ode is printed with the divisions adopted by the 
Composer, Dr. Randall, then Professor of Music at Cambridge. 
On Dr. Burney's disappointment that he did not set this Ode 
to music, see Miss Burney's Mem. i. 212; and Cradock's 
Mem. i. p. 107.) 

I. AlK. 

" Hence, avaunt, ('tis holy ground) 

Comus, and his midnight-crew, 
And Ignorance with looks profound, 

And dreaming Sloth of pallid hue, 
Mad Sedition's cry profane, fi 

Servitude that hugs her chain. 
Nor in these consecrated bowers 
Let painted Flatt'ry hide her serpent-train in 
flowers. 

CHOBUS. 

Nor Envy base, nor creeping Gain, 



V. 1. So Callim. H. in Apoll. ver. 2: 'E/cdf SKug barig aki- 
Tpbc. Virg. Ma. vi. 258: " Procul, procul este profani." 
Stat. Sylv. iii. 3: " Procul hinc, procul ite nocentes." Claud. 
Rap. Pros. i. 3: " Gressus removete profani." 
V. 2. *• Meanwhile welcome joy, and feast. 
Midnight .shout, and revelry, 

Tipsy dance, and jollity." Milt. Com. 102. W. 
"Though he and his cursed crew." Milt. Com. 653. 
V. 7. " Near to her close and consecrated bower. *^ 

Mids. N. Dr. act iii. sc. 2. W. 
V. 9. " Base Envy withers at another's joy." Thomson. 
Spring. Also, " Safe pursuits and creeping cares. ^^ Liberty, 
p. iv. Luke. 



62 gray's poems. 

Dare tlie Muse's walk to stain, m 

While bright-eyed Science watches round : 
Hence, away, 'tis holy ground ! " 

II. RECITATIVE. 

From yonder realms of empyrean day 

Bursts on my ear th' indignant lay : 
There sit the sainted sage, the bard divine, is 

The few, whom genius gave to shine 
Thro' every unborn age, and undiscovered clime. 

Rapt in celestial transport they : 

Yet hither oft a glance from high 

They send of tender sympathy 20 



V. 13. " From your empyreal bowers, and from the realms 
of everlasting day." G. West's Poems. 

V. 15. There sit'\ Surely a better word than this, **sit,** in 
pronunciation and imagery could have been found. 

V. 17. " Nations unborn your mighty name shall sound. 

And worlds applaud that must not yet be found.'* 
Pope. Essay on Criticism, 193. W. 

V. 26. " E'en mitred Rochester would nod the head.'* 
Pope. Prol. to the Sat. 143. W. See Warton. Milt. p. 4. 

V. 27. " To arched walks of twilight groves. 

And shadows brown that Sylvan loves." 

II Penser. 133. W. 

And so Pope, in his Transl. of the Odyssey : " Brown with 
o'erarching shades." 

This stanza, supposed to be sung by Milton, is very judi- 
ciously written in the metre which he fixed upon for the stanza 
of his Christmas Hymn : " 'Twas in the winter wild," &o. 
Mason. 

" Nought have we here but willow-shaded shore. 
To tell our Grant his banks are left forlore." 

Hall. Sat. b. i. sat. i. 
V 30. Wakefield has justly remarked that this stanza la 
indebted to the following passage in the II Pens of Milton, 
ver. 61 • 



ODE FOR MUSIC. 63 

To bless the place, where on their opening soul 

First the genuine ardour stole. 
'Twas Milton struck the deep-ton'd shell, 
And, as the choral warblings round him swell, 
Meek Newton's self bends from his state sublime, 
And nods his hoary head, and listens to the rhyine. 

III. AIR. 

" Ye brown o'er-arching groves, 

That Contemplation loves, 
Where willowy Camus lingers with delight 1 

Oft at the blush of dawn ao 

I trod your level lawn. 
Oft woo'd the gleam of Cynthia silver-bright 



** Sweet bird, that shunn'st the noise of follyy 
Most musical, most melancholy ! * 

V. 31. *'In long excursion skims the level lawn.*' 

Thomson. Spring. Luke. 

V. 32. "With silver-bright who moon enamels." 



* Gaw. Douglas, in his Transl. of Virgil, Prolog, to bk. xiii. 
p. 450, describes the notes of the nightingale as merry: 

" — The mery nyghtyngele Philomene, 
That on the thorne sat syngand fro the splene, 
Quhais myrthfull nottis langing for to here," &c. 

•' Ah ! far unlike the nightingale ! — she sings 

Unceasing thro' the balmy nights of May; 

She sings from love and joy." Thomson. Agamem. p. 63. 

** Him will I cheare with chanting all this night. 
And with that word she 'gan to clear her throate: 
But such a lively song,^ now by this light. 
Yet never hearde I such another note." 

Gascoigne. Complaynt of Phylomene. 
Mr. Fox has, I think, given no authority but that of Chaucer, 
for the m.erry notes uf the nightingale; see his Letter to Lord 
Grey, p. 12. But see TuiUl. Iliust. u\' (jl(.vvei . 



64 gray's poems. 

In cloisters dim, far from the haunts of Folly, 
"With Freedom by my side, and soft-eyed Melan« 
choly." 

IV. RECITATIVE. 

But hark ! the portals sound, and pacing forth as 

With solemn steps and slow, 
High potentates, and dames of royal birth. 
And mitred fathers in long order go : 
Great Edward, with the lilies on his brow 

From haughty Gallia torn, 40 

And sad Chatillon, on her bridal morn 



Drummond, son. xii. Luke. " Their arrow that marched 
hence so silver-bright." K. John. Rogers. 

V. 33. Scared in cloisters dim the superstitious herd." 

Thomson. Liberty, pt. iii. Luke. 

V. 34. " And sensible soft Melancholy," Pope. On a cer- 
tain Lady at Court, ver. 8. W, V. Pope. ProL to Satires, 
V. 286. Luke. 

V. 36. "With wand'ring steps and slow," Par. Lost, b. xii. 
ver. 648. W. — And Pope. Odys. b. x. ver. 286. Dune. b. iv. 
ver. 465, as quoted by Mr. Todd. " At every step solemn 
and slow," Thomson. Summer. Luke. 

V. 38. " In long order stand," Dryd. ^n. iii. 533. « In 
long order come," v. 133. Rogers. 

" Unde omnes longo ordine possit 
Adversos legere, et venientum discere vultus." 

Virg. iEn. vi. 754. W. 
V. 39. Edward the Third, who added the fleur de lys of 
France to the arras of England. He founded Trinity College, 
See Philips, in " Cyder," ii. 592: 

" Great Edward thus array'd. 
With golden Iris his broad shield emboss'd." 

" Great Edward and thy greater son, 
He that the lilies wore, and he that won." Denham. 

V. 41. Mary de Valentia, countess of Pembroke, daughter 
of Guy de Chatillon, comte de St. Paul in France ; of whom 
tradition says, that her husband Audemar de Valentia, earl 



ODE FOR MUSIC. 65 

That wept her bleeding Love, and princely Clare, 
And Anjou's heroine, and the paler rose, 
The rival of her crown and of her woes, 

And either Henry there, « 

The murder'd saint, and the majestic lord, 
That broke the bonds of Rome. 
(Their tears, their little triumphs o'er, 
Their human passions now no more. 
Save Charity, that glows beyond the tomb.) so 

ACCOMPANIED. 

All that on Granta's fruitful plain 
Rich streams of regal bounty pour'd, 



of Pembroke, was slain at a tournament on the day of his 
nuptials. She was the foundress of Pembroke College or 
Hall, under the name of Aula Marise de Valentia. Gray. 
But consult a letter to Tyson from Gough in Nicholl. Lit. 
Anec. viii. 604. Luke. Fotheringay Castle was her property. 

V. 42. Elizabeth de Burg, countess of Clare, was wife of 
John de Burg, son and heir of the Earl of Ulster, and daugh- 
ter of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, by Joan of Acres, 
daughter of Edv/ard the First. Hence the poet gives her the 
epithet of princely. She founded Clare Hall. Gray. 

v. 43. Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry the Sixth, foun- 
dress of Queen's College. The poet has celebrated her conjugal 
fidelity in " The Bard," epode 2d, line 13th. 

Elizabeth Widville, wife of Edward the Fourth, hence called 
the paler rose, as being of the house of York. She added to 
the foundation of Margaret of Anjou. Gray. 

V. 45. Henry the Sixth and Eighth. The former the 
founder of King's, the latter the greatest benefactor to Trinity 
College. Gray. 

V. 49. "One human tear shall drop, and be forgiven." 

Pope. Bloisa, 358. W. 

V. 50. « Charity never faileth," St. Paul, 1 Corinth, xiii. 

8. yv. 



66 gray's poems. 

And bade these awful fanes and turrets rise, 
To liail their Fitzroy's festal morning come ; 

And thus they speak in soft accord fis 

The liquid language of the skies : 

V. QUARTETTO. 

" What is grandeur, what is power ? 

Heavier toil, superior pain. 

What the bright reward we gain ? 

The grateful memory of the good. 63 

Sweet is the breath of vernal shower. 

The bee's collected treasures sweet, 

Sweet music's melting fall, but sweeter yet 

The still small voice of gratitude." 



V. 66. " Cui liquidam Pater 

Voce7n.*' Hor. Od. I. xxiv. 3. W. 
And so Lucret. v. 1378 ; " Liquidas voces." And Ovid. Amor. 
I. xiii. 8. 

V. 61. Milton. Ep. on M. of Winchest. " Shot up from 
vernal shower." Thomson. Spring, '* With vernal showers dis- 
tent." Luke. 

V. 62. This comparison we find also in Theoer. Id. viii. 83: 
KpEGGOv fieXTTOfiivco rev uKovefiev, ?/ fiSAL Tieixev. And in Cal- 
phurn. Eciog. iv. ver. 150. These four verses, as Wakefield 
remarks, were suggested by Milton's Par. Lost, b. iv. ver. 
641 : " Sweet is the breath of morn," &c. : but see also Theoer. 
Idyll. 1?. ver. 33: 



ovre -yap vrrvo^, 

Ovt' eap e^amvag yTivaepuTepov, aire fieXcaaai.^ 
'Avdea, oaaov kfuv Mwaat (piAxiL. 

"Opes congestas apium," A. Marcellini. Hist, xviii. 3. 

V. 63. " And melt away, in a dying, dying fall," Pope, 
Ode on St. Cecilia. Luke. 

V. 64. " After the -fire, a still small voice," 1 Kings, xix. 12. 
And in a rejected stanza of the Elegy: 

" Hark how the sacred calm that breathes around 
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease ; 



ODE FOR MUSIC. 67 

TI. RECITATIVE. 

Foremost and leaning from her golden cloud 65 

The venerable Marg'ret see ! 
" Welcome, my noble son, (she cries aloud) 

To this, thy kindred train, and me : 
Pleas'd in thy lineaments we trace 
A Tudor's fire, a Beaufort's grace. /o 

AIR. 

Thy liberal heart, thy judging eye, 

The flow'r unheeded shall descry, 

And bid it round heav'n's altars shed 

The fragrance of its blushing head ; 

Shall raise from earth the latent gem » 

To glitter on the diadem. 



In still small accents whisp'ring from the ground 
A grateful earnest of eternal peace." W. 

" Now in a still small tone 
Your dying accents fall." Dryd. (Edip. act ii. 

V. 65. " A voice from midst a golden cloud thus mild was 
heard." Milt. P. L. vi. 27. Luke. 

V. 66. Countess of Richmond and Derby; the mother of 
Henry the Seventh, foundress of St. John's and Christ's Col- 
leges. Gray. 

V. TO. The Countess was a Beaufort, and married to a Tudor: 
hence the application of this line to the Duke of Grafton, who 
claims descent from both these families. Gray. 

V. 71. " Dryden alone escaped his judging eye." 

Pope. Prol to the Sat. 246. 
Also: "A face untaught to feign, a judging eye." Pope. 
Epist. to Cfaggs, p. 289. " A liberal heart and free from 
gall." Fuller. Abel Red. p. 314. 

V. 72. This allusion to the flower and the gem we meetMrith 
again in the Elegy. 

V. 73. " Delubra, et aras ccelitum," Senec. Agam. v. 392. 
" Coeloqae educitur ara,'^ Sil. Ital. xv. 388. " Araque Di- 
TOnim," Manil. Astr. v. 18. 



68 gray's poems. 

TII. RECITATIVE. 

" Lo ! Granta waits to lead her blooming band, 

Not obvious, not obtrusive, she 
No vulgar praise, no venal incense flings ; 

Nor dares with courtly tongue refin'd so 

Profane thy inborn royalty of mind : 

She reveres herself and thee. 
With modest pride to grace thy youthful brow, 
The laureate wreath, that Cecil wore, she brings, 

And to thy just, thy gentle hand, ss 



V. 78. ** Not obvious, not obtrusive, but retired." 

Par. L. viii. 504. W. 

V. 79. ** No hireling she, no prostitute for praise." 

Pope. Epist. to Lord Oxford, v. 36. W. 

V. 82. IlavTuv ds iMakiaf alaxvveo aavrov, Pythag. Aur 
V. 12. W. — And so Gralen. "De Curatione Morb. Animi : '* 
2i) 6e aavrbv alSov ftdXiara. 

V. 83. " Yielded with coy submission, modest pride.'* 

Par. Lost, iv. 310. 

V. 84. Lord Treasurer Burleigh was chancellor of the Uni- 
versity in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Gray. Milt. Son. 
xvi. 9: <« And Worcester's laureate wreath." Luke. 

V. 85. Par. Lost, b. iv. 308, " gentle sway," from Horace, 
" lenibus imperils," Epist. I. xviii. 44. W. — But the senti- 
ment, as well as expression, was taken from Dryden. Thr. 
August. 284: 

" And with a willing hand restores 
The fasces of the main." 
Add Milton. Eleg. i. 67 : " Vos etiam Danaae fasces submittite 
nymphse." Luke. " With the submitted fasces of the main." 
Dryden. Astrsea. Red. 

V. 88. See Par. Lost, vii. 559. 

v. 89. " Well knows to still the wild waves when they roar." 
Comus, V. 87. W. « The wild waves mastered him." Dryden. 
An. Mirabilis. 
V. 92. " Neque altum 

Semper urguendo, neque, dum procellas 
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo 
Littus iniquum." 



ODE FOR MUSIC. 69 

Submits tlie fasces of her sway, 
While spirits blest above and men below 
Join with glad voice the loud sjmphonious lay. 

VIII. GRAND CHORUS. 

"Thro' the wild waves as they roar, 

With watchful eye and dauntless mien, 90 

Thy steady course of honour keep, 
Nor fear the rocks, nor seek the shore : 
The star of Brunswick smiles serene. 
And gilds the horrors of the deep." 



Hor. Od. II. X. V. 1. W. " Nor let her tempt that deep, nor 
make the shore." Prior. Ode. 

V. 93. Pope, in his Essay on Criticism, has a similarly beau- 
tiful image, v. 645 : 

*' The mighty Stagyrite first left the shore, 
Spread all his sails, and durst the deeps explore ; 
He steer'd securely, and discover'd far. 
Led by the light of the Mcsonian star." 

roung, in his "Universal Passion," Sat. vii. v. 169: 
" And outwateh every star, for Brunsmck*s sake.'^ 



70 gray's poems. 



THE FATAL SISTERS. 



AN ODE. FROM THE NORSE TONGUE. 



To be found in the Orcades of Thormodus Torfaeus; Hafnise, 
1697, folio; and also in Bartholinus, p. 617, lib. iii. c. 1. 4to. 
(The song of the Weird Sisters, translated from the Nor- 
wegian, written about 1029. Wharton, ms.) 

Vitt er orpit fyrir valfalli, 8^c. 

In the eleventh century, Sigurd, earl of the Orkney Islands, 
went with a fleet of ships and a considerable body of troops 
into Ireland, to the assistance of Sictryg with the Silken 
beard, who was then makmg war on his father-in-law Brian, 
king of Dublin : the earl and all his forces were cut to pieces, 
and Sictryg was in danger of a total defeat ; but the enemy 
had a greater loss by the death of Brian their king, who fell 
in the action. On Christinas day (the day of the battle), a 
native of Caithness in Scotland, of the name of Darrud, saw 
at a distance a number of persons on horseback riding full 
speed towards a hill, and seeming to enter into it. Curiosity 
led him to follow them, till looking through an opening in 
the rocks, he saw twelve gigantic figures resembling women: 
they were all employed about a loom ; and as they wove, 
they sung the following dreadful song; which when they 
had finished, they tore the web into twelve pieces, and (each 

■ taking her portion) galloped six to the north, and as many 
to the south. These were the Valkyriiv, female divinities, 
Parose Milititre-s, servants of Odin (or Woden) in the Gothic 
mythology. Their name signifies Choosers of the slain. 
They were mounted on swift horses, with drawn swords in 
their hands; and in the throng of battle selected such as 
were destined to slaughter, and conducted them tx) Valkalla, 
the hall of Odin, or paradise of the brave; where they 
attended the banquet, and served the departed heroes with 
horns of mead and ale : their numbers are not agreed upon, 
gome authors representing them as six, some as four. Pee 
Magni Beronii diss, de Eddis Islandicis, p. 145, in iElrichs. 
Dan. et Sued. lit. opuscula, vol. i. 



THE FATAL SISTESS. 71 



Now the storm begins to lower, 
(Haste, the loom of hell prepare,) 

Iron sleet of arrowy shower 
Hurtles in the darken'd air. 

Glittering lances are the loom, 
Where the dusky warp we strain, 

Weaving many a soldier's doom. 
Orkney's woe, and Randver's bane. 

Var. V. 5. Launces. ms. 



V. 3. . 

'* How quick they wlieel'd, and, flying, behind them shot 
Sharp sleet of arrowy shower." Par. Reg. iii. 324. Gray. 

Avianus has a similar expression: " Ansa pharetratis imbribus 
ista loqui," Fab. xli. v. 6. " Sic et imbrem ferreum dicunt^ 
cum volunt multitudinem significare telorum," Lactant. 
Epitome, c. xi. Virg. ^n. xii, 284: " Tempestas telorum a« 
ferreus ingruit imber." Many other examples could be given. 

Thick storms of bullets ran like winter's hail. 
And shiver 'd lances rffirA: the troubled air." 

Spanish Trag. Vid. Hawkins. Ant. Drama. 

V. 4. "The noise of battle hurtled in the air." 

Julius Csesar, act ii. s. 2. Gray. 

Y.I. In Thomson. Masque of Alfred, p. 126, the weaving 
of the enchanted standard is thus described: 

" 'Tis the same 



Wrought by the sisters of the Danish king, 

Of furious Ivar, in a midnight hour, 

While the sick moon, at their enchanted song 

Wrapt in pale tempest, labour'd thro' the clouds. 

The demons of destruction then, (they say,) 

Were all abroad, and mixing with the looqf 

Th.eir baleful power; the Sisters even sung, 

* Shake, standard, shake, this ruin on our foes ! ' *' 



72 GRAY'S POEMS. 

See the grisly texture grow ! 

('Tis of human entrails made) io 

And the weights, that play below, 

Each a gasping warrior's head. 

Shafts for shuttles, dipt in gore, 
Shoot the trembling cords along. 

Swords, that once a monarch bore, la 

Keep the tissue close and strong. 

Mista, black terrific maid, 

Sangrida, and Hilda, see. 
Join the wayward work to aid : 

'Tis the woof of victory. oa 

Ere the ruddy sun be set. 

Pikes must shiver, javelins sing, 

Blade with clattering buckler meet. 
Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. 

(Weave the crimson web of war) 25 

Let us go, and let us fly, 

Var. V. 15. Sword] Blade. MS. 

V. 17. Mista, black'] Sangrida, terrific. MS. 

V. 18. Sangrida and] Mista black, and. MS. 

V. 23. Blade] Sword. W. MS. 



V. 11. Dr. Warton, in his Notes on Pope (vol. ii. p. 227), 
has compared this passage of Gray to some lines in tiie The- 
bais of Statins, i. 720. 

V. 17. The names of the Sisters, in the original, are Hilda, 
Hiorthrimula, Sangrida, au4 Swipula. 



THE FATAL rflSTEKS. 73 

Where our friends the conflict share, 
Where they triumph, where they die. 

As the paths of fate we tread, 

Wading through th' ensanguined field, » 
Gondula and Geira, spread 

O'er the youthful king your shield. 

We the reins to slaughter give, 
Ours to kill, and ours to spare: 

Spite of danger he shall live. as 

(Weave the crimson web of war.) 

They, whom once the desert-beach 
Pent within its bleak domain, 

Soon their ample sway shall stretch 

O'er the plenty of the plain. • 

Low the dauntless earl is laid, 

Gor'd with many a gaping wound : 

Fate demands a nobler head; 

Soon a king shall bite the ground. 

Long his loss shall Eirin weep, *& 

Ne'er again his likeness see 

Var. V. 31. Gondula and Geira"] Gunna and Gondula. us 
V. 44. Shall] Must. MS. 



V. 40. ** Insult the plenty of the vales below.'* 

Essay on the Alliance, &o. Luke, 
V. 44. (Shall bite the ground) " QvTjTot bda^ khrv ovdagP 
Horn. 

V. 46. Eirin] Ireland. 



74 gray's poems. 

Long her strains in sorrow steep; 
Strains of immortality ! 

Horror covers all the heath, 

Clouds of carnage blot the sun. ^ 

Sisters, weave the web of death ; 

Sisters, cease ; the work is done. 

Hail the task, and hail the hands ! 

Songs of joy and triumph sing I 
Joy to the victorious bands ; ^ 

Triumph to the younger king. 

Mortal, thou that hear'st the tale, 
Learn the tenour of our song. 

Scotland, thro' each winding vale 
Far and wide the notes prolong. 



Var. V. 49. Heath ! ms. 
V. 50. Bloq Veil. MS. 
V. 50 Sun ! MS. 
V. 59. Winding'l Echoing. MS. 



fi'i 



V. 49. This stanza, as it appears in the original, Mr. Her- 
bert has translated without tiie insertion or omission of a 
word: 

*' 'Tis horrid now to gaze around. 
While clouds thro* heaven gore-dropping sail; 
Air must he stain'd with blood of men. 
Ere all our oracles shall fail.'* 

Select Icelandic Poetry, p. 50. 

V. 59. This and the following line are not in the original. 

Indeed, this poem is not so much a translation, as a loose, 

though highly -spirited paraphrase ; and, as Herbert observes, 

inferior to the " Descent of Odin." 

V. 61. ** Bear me hence on wheels of speed.*' 

V. Philips. (Pind. 1. iEn. 3.) 



THE FATAL SISTERS. 75 

Sisters, lience with spurs of speed : 
Each her thundering faulchion wield ; 

Each bestride her sable steed. 
Hurr J, hurry to the field ! 

V. 61—64. 

" Sisters, hence, 'tis time to ride: 

Now your thundering faulchion wield; 
Now your sable steed bestride. 
Hurry, hurry to the field." MS. 



THE VEGTAM'S KIVITHA; 

OKj THE DESCENT OP ODIN. * AN ODE. FROM TH B 
NORSE TONGUE. 



[The original is to be found in Saemund's Edda, and in Bartho- 
linus, De Causis contemnendae Mortis; Hafniae, 1689, quarto. 
Lib. III. c. ii. p. 632. (See Warton. Hist, of E. Poetry, 
vol. i. p. xii. And Warton's Pope, vol. ii. p. 70. " This 
Ode, I think with Lord Orford, equal to any of Gray's."] 

Upreis Odinn allda gautr, 8fc, 



* This Ode is much more literally translated than the pre- 
ceding. The original title I have restored from Gray's MS. 
The first five stanzas of this Ode are omitted; in which Bal- 
der, one of the sons of Odin, was informed that he should soon 
die. Upon his communication of his dream, the other gods, 
finding it true by consulting the oracles, agreed to ward off 
the approaching danger, and sent Frigga to exact an oath from 
every thing not to injure Balder. She, however, overlooked 
the Misletoe, with a branch of which he was afterwards slain 
by Hoder, at the instigation of Lok. After the execution of 
this commission^ Odin, still alarmed for ihe life of his son. 



76 gray's poems. 

Uprose the king of men with speed, 

And saddled straight his coal-black steed ; 

Down the yawning steep he rode, 

That leads to Hela's drear abode. 

Him the dog of darkness spied ; 5 

His shaggy throat he open'd wide, 

(While from his jaws, with carnage fill'd, 

Foam and human gore distill'd :) 

Hoarse he bays with hideous din, 

Eyes that glow, and fangs that grin ; 10 

And long pursues, with fruitless yell, 

The father of the powerful spell. 

Onward still his way he takes, 

(The groaning earth beneath him shakes,) 

Var. V. 7. (So ms. Wh.) 

V. 11. Fruitlessi Ceaseless. MS. 



called another council ; and hearing nothing but divided 
opinions among the gods, to consult the Prophetess, " he up- 
rose with speed." Vali, or Ali, the son of Rinda, afterwards 
avenged the death of Balder, by slaying Hoder, and is called 
a " wondrous boy, because he killed his enemy, before he was a 
day old ; before he had washed his face, combed his hair, or 
seen one setting-sun." See Herbert's Icelandic Translations, 
p. 45 ; to which I am indebted for part of this note. And the 
Edda of Saemund, translated by Cottle. See also the Intro- 
duction to the Descent of Frea, in Sayer. Dramatic Sketches 
of H. Mythology, 1792 

V. 1. " When straight uprose the king of men." 

Chapman. Homer. II. xiii. p. 43. 

V. 2. Sleipner was the horse of Odin, which had eight legs 
Vide Edda. Mason. " And coal black steeds yborne of hellish 
brood." Spens. F. Q. I. v. xx. Luke. 

V. 4. Vid. Cottle's Edda. « Song of Vafthrudnes," p. 29. 
Note Niflheliar, the hell of the Gothic nations, consisted 



THE TEGTAM's KIVIIHA 77 

Till full before liis fearless eyes is 

The portals nine of hell arise. 

Right against the eastern gate, 
By the moss-grown pile he sate ; 
Where long of yore to sleep was laid 
The dust of the prophetic maid. » 

Facing to the northern clime, 
Thrice he trac'd the Runic rhyme ; 
Thrice pronounc'd, in accents dread, 
The thrilling verse that wakes the dead : 
Till from out the hollow ground 2s 

Slowly breath'd a sullen sound. 

v. 14. Shakes] Quakes. MS. 
V. 23. Accents] Murmurs. MS. 



of nine worlds, to which were devoted all such as died of 
siokness, old age, or by any other means than in battle. Over 
it presided Hela, the goddess of death. Mason. 

Hela, in the Edda, is described with a dreadful countenance, 
and her body half flesh colour, and half blue. Gray. 

V. 6. The Edda gives this dog the name of Managarmar. 
He fed upon the lives of those that were to die. Mason. 

V. 17. " Right against the eastern gate 

When the great sun begins his state." 

L'Alleg. v. 60. Warfcon. note. 

V. 22. In a little poem called the " Magic of Odin," (see 
Bartholinus, p. 641,) Odin says, "If I see a man dead, and 
hanging aloft on a tree, I engrave Runic characters so won- 
derful, that the man immediately descends and converses with 
me. When I see magicians travelling through the air, I 
disconcert them with a single look, and force them to abandon 
their enter prize." 

V. 24. The original word is Valgalldr; from Valr mortuus. 
and ( ''alldr incantatio. (rray. 



78 gray's poems. 

PROPHETESS. 

"WTiat call unknown, what charms presume 
To break the quiet of the tomb ? 
Who thus afflicts my troubled sprite, 
And drags me from the realms of night? ao 
Long on these mould'ring bones have beat 
The winter's snow, the summer's heat, 
The drenching dews, and driving rain \ 
Let me, let me sleep again. 
Who is he, with voice unblest, 85 

That calls me from the bed of rest? 

ODIN. 

A traveller, to thee unknown, 
Is he that calls, a warrior's son. 
Thou the deeds of light shalt know 
Tell me what is done below, \ « 

Var. V. 27. What call unknovm] What voice unknown. MS. 
V. 29. My trouhled] A weary. MS. 
V. 36. He\ This. MS. 



V. 27. •' What power art thou, who from below 

Hast made me rise." Dryd. K. Arth. vi. 

V. 33. *• Till cold December comes with driving rain.^* 

Dryden. Virg. G. i. 301. Luke. 

V. 34. This and the two following verses are not in the 
original, and therefore Gray probably borroAved them from 
the Thessalian Incantation in Lucan. Ph. vi. 820: " Sic post- 
quam fata peregit, stat vultu moestus tacito, mortemque repos- 
cit." See Quart. Rev. No. xxii. p. 314. " Let me, let me rest.*' 
Pope. *' Let me, let me drop my freight." Dryden. Sec. 
Mag. Rogers. " Let me, let me freeze again to death." 
Dryden. K. Arth. 

V. 40. Odin was anxious about the fate of his son, Balder, 
who had dreamed he was soon to die. He was killed by Odin's 
other son, Hoder, who was himself slain by Vali, the son of 
Odin and Rinda, consf nant with this prophecy. See the Edda. 



THE vegtam's kivitha. 79 

For whom yon glitt'ring board is spread, 
Dress'd for whom yon golden bed ? 

PROPHETESS. 

Mantling in the goblet see 
The pure bev'rage of the bee : 
O'er it hangs the shield of gold ; 45 

*Tis the drink of Balder bold ; 
Balder's head to death is giVn. 
Pain can reach the sons of heav'n ! 
Unwilling I my lips unclose : 
Leave me, leave me to repose. 

ODIN. 

Once again my call obey : 
Prophetess, arise, and say, 
What dangers Odin's child await, 
Who the author of his fate ? 

Var. V. 41. Yon] The. ms. 
V. 48. Reach] Touch. MS. 
V. 61, 62. Once again^ &C.] 
** Prophetess, my call obey. 
Once again arise and say.*' MS. 



V. 42. «* Non movet aurea pompa thari.** Prudent, ff. Sr. 
Ui. V. iii. *' Aurato lecto." Juv. Sat. vi. 
V. 43. "The spiced goblets mantled high." 

T. Warton. Works, ii. 74. 

V. 50. "Quid, oro, me post Lethaea po«ula, jam Stygiis pa- 
ludibus innatantem ad momentari^e vitse reducitis officia^'? 
Desine jam, precor, desine, ac me in meam quietem permitte*^ 
Apul. Memor. ii. 40. quoted in the Quarterly Rev. No. xxii. 
p. 314. 

V. 51. Women were looked upon by the Gothic nations as 
having a peculiar insight into futurity; and some there were 
that made profession of magic arts and divination. These 
travelled round the country, and were received in every house 
with great respect and honour. Such a woman bore <lie name 



80 gray's poems. 

PROPHETESS. 

In Hoder's hand the hero's doom ; 55 

His brother sends him to the tomb. 
Now my weary lips I close ; 
Leave me, leave me to repose. 

OBIN. 

Prophetess, my spell obey : 
Once again arise, and say, » 

Who th' avenger of his guilt, 
By whom shall Hoder's blood be spilt? 

PROPHETESS. 

In the caverns of the west, 
By Odin's fierce embrace comprest, 

Var V. 69, 60 Prophetess^ &c.] 

'* Once again my call obey. 
Prophetess, arise and say." MS. 
V. 61, 62. Who th' avenger, &c.] These verses are trans- 
posed in MS. 



of Volva Seidkona or Spakona. The dress of Thorbiorga, one 
of these prophetesses, is described at large in Eirik's Rauda 
Sogu, (apud Bartholin, lib. i. cap. iv. p. 688.) " She had on 
a blue vest spangled all over with stones, a necklace of glass 
beads, and a cap made of the skin of a black lamb lined with 
white oat-skin. She leaned on a staff adorned with brass, with 
a round head set with stones; and was girt with an Hunland- 
ish belt, at which hung her pouch full of magical instruments. 
Her buskins were of rough calf-skin, bound on with thongs 
studded with knobs of brass, and her gloves of white cat-skin, 
the fur turned inwards," &c. They were also called Fiolkyngi, 
or Fto//i;«nnu^, i. e. Multi-scia; and Visindakona, i, e. Oracu- 
lorum Mulier; iVbrmV, i.e. Parcae. Gray. 
V. 58. ** When my weary lips I close 

And slumber, 'tis without repose." 

N. Tate. Poems, p. 90. 

V. 66. King Harold made (according to the singular cus- 
tom of his time) a solemn vow never to clip or corrib his hair, 
till he should have extended his sway over the whole country. 



THE VEGTAM's KIVITHA. 81 

A wond'rous boy shall Rinda bear, es 

Who ne'er shall comb his raven hair, 

Nor wash his visage in the stream, 

Nor see the sun's departing beam. 

Till he on Hoder's corse shall smile 

Flaming on the fun'ral pile. w 

Now my weary lips 1 close : 

Leave me, leave me to repose. 

ODIN. 

Yet a while my call obey : 
Prophetess, awake, and say. 
What virgins these, in speechless woe, rs 

Var. V. 65. Wond^rous} Giant. MS. 
V. 74. Awake'] Arise. MS. 



Herbert. Iceland Translat. p. 39 In the Dying Song of 
Asbiom, p. 52: 

*' Know, gentle mother, know. 
Thou wilt not comb my flowing hairy 
When summer sweets return. 
In Denmark's vallies, Svanvhide fair ! '* 

V. 75. "It is not certain," says Mr. Herbert, "what Odin 
means by the question concerning the weeping virgins; but it 
has been supposed that it alludes to the embassy afterwards 
sent by Frigga to try to redeem Balder from the infernal 
regions, and that Odin betrays his divinity by mentioning 
what had not yet happened." Iceland. Translat. p. 48. — 
The object of this embassy was frustrated by the perfidy of 
Loke, who, having assumed (as was supposed) the shape of an 
old woman, refused to join in the general petition. " I Lok 
(she said) will weep with dry eyes the funeral of Balder. Let 
all things, living or dead, weep if they will, but let Hela keep 
her prey." — After this, Loke hid him^self, built a house 
among the mountains, and made a net. Odin, however, found 
out his hiding-place, and the gods assembled to take him. He, 
seeing this, burnt his net, and changed himself into a salmon. 
After some trouble, Thor caught him by the tail; and this is 
the reason why salmons, ever after, have had their tails so fine 



82 gkay's poems. 

That bend to earth theu* solemn brow, 

That their flaxen tresses t«ar, 

And snowy veils that float in air ? 

Tell me whence their sorrows rose : 

Then I leave thee to repose. so 

PROPHETESS. 

Ha ! no traveller art thou, 
King of men, I know thee now ; 
Mightiest of a mighty line 

ODIN. 

No boding maid of skill divine 

Var. V. 77. That, flaxen} Who, flowing. MS. 
V. 79. Say from whence. MS. 
V. 83. The mightiest of the mighty line. MS. 



and thin. They bound him with chains, and suspended the 
eerpent Skada over his head, whose venom falls upon his face 
drop by drop. His wife Siguna sits by his side, catches the 
drops as they Tall from his faoe in a basin, which she empties 
as often as it is filled. He will remain in chains till the end 
of the world, or, as the Icelanders call it, the Twilight of the 
Gods. To this the prophetess aUudes in the last stanza. See 
Butler. Hor. Bibl. ii. 194. 

V. 76. This and the following verse are not in the Latin 

translation. 

V. 82. ** Great Love ! I know thee now. 
Eldest of the Gods, art thou.'* 

Dryden. K. Arth. Rogers* 

V. 86. In the Latin, *' mater trium gigantum: '* probably 
Angerbode, who from her name seems to be " no prophetess 
of good; " and who bore to Loke, as the Edda says, three 
children, the wolf Fenris, the great serpent of Midgard, and 
Hela, all of them called giants in that system of mythology. 
Mason. Sams. Agon. 1247, "I dread him not, nor all his 
giant-brood. Luke. 

V. 88. In the original, this and the three following lines 
are represented by this couplet: 



THE vegtam's kivitha. 83 

Art thou, nor prophetess of good ; as 

But mother of the giant brood ! 

PROPHETESS. 

BQe thee hence, and boast at home, 
That never shall enquirer come 
To break my iron-sleep again ; 
.Till Lok has burst his tenfold chain ; w 

Never, till substantial night 
Has reassum'd her ancient right ; 
Till wrapt in flames, in ruin hurl'd, 
Sinks the fabric of the world. 

Var. V. 87. Hie thee, Odin, boast ms. 
V. 90. Has'\ Have. MS. 
V. 92. Has reassum^d'\ Reassumes her. MS. 



** Et deorum crepusculum 
Dissolventes aderint." 

yV. Herbert has published a translation of the introductory 
lines of this poem, and also much curious information illustra- 
ting several passages in the text. See his Select Iceland. 
Poetry, p. 43. He mentions some little amplifications in Gray, 
tending to convey notions of the Icelandic mythology, not 
warranted by the original, as " Coal-black steed; " Raven- 
hair; " " Thrice he trac'd the Runic rhyme; " " The portals 
nine of hell; '* " Foam and human gore." 

V. 89. " xO'^K^og vnvog, " Hom. " Ferreus somnus," Virg. 
Mn. xii. 309. "Iron sleep," Dryden. And " An iron slum- 
ber shuts my sleeping eyes," Dryden. Georg. iv. 717. 

Y. 90. Lok is the evil being, who continues in chains till 
the twilight of the gods approaches: when he shall break his 
bonds, the human race, the stars, and sun, shall disappear; the 
earth sink in the seas, and fire consume the skies: even Odin 
himself and his kindred deities shall perish. For a further 
explanation of this mythology, see " Introd. k I'Hist. de Dan- 
nemarc par Mallet," 1755, quarto; or rather a translation of 
it published in 1770, and entitled " Northern Antiquities ; " 
in which some mistakes in the original are judiciously cor- 
rected. Mason. 



84 gray's poems 



THE TRIUMPHS OF OWEN.* 

A FBAGMENT. FROM THE WELSH. 

[From Evans. Spec, of the Welsh Toetry, 1764, quarto, p. 25, 
where is a Prose version of this Poem, and p. 127. Owen 
succeeded his father Griffith app Cynan in the principality 
of N. Wales, A.D. 1137, This battle was fought in the 
year 1157. Jones. Relics, vol. ii. p. 36.] 

Owen's praise demands my song, 

Owen swift, and Owen strong; 

Fairest flower of Roderic's stem, 

Gwyneth's shield, and Britain's gem. 

He nor heaps his brooded stores, * 

Nor on all profusely pours ; 

Lord of every regal art. 

Liberal hand, and open heart. 



Compare with this poem, " Hermode's Journey to Hell," in 
Dr. Percy's Translation of Mallet's JS^orthern Antiquities, 
vol. ii. p. 149. See Beronii Diss, de Bddis Island, p. 153. 
Mundi credita eKTVvpuGLg in qua solem nigrescere, tellurem in 
mari submersam iri, Stellas de coelo lapsuras, ignem in vetustam 
orbis molem et fabrieam disaevituram, v. Sibyll. Velusp. Stroph. 
liii. 

* The original Welsh of the above poem was the compo- 
sition of Gwalchmai the son of Melir, immediately after Princo 
Owen Gwynedd had defeated the combined fleets of Iceland, 
Denmark, and Norway, which had invaded his territory on 
the coast of Anglesea. There is likewise another poem which 
describes this famous battle, written by Prince Howel, the son 
of Owen Gwynedd; a literal translation of which may be seen 
in Jones. Relics, vol. ii. p. 36. In Mason's edition, and in all 
the subsequent editions, it is said that Owen succeedetl his 



THE TUlUMrHS OF OWEN. 85 

Big with liosts of mighty name, 
Squadrons three against him came; •' 

This the force of Eirin hiding, 
Side by side as proudly riding, 
On her shadow long and gay 
Lochlin plows the wat'ry way ; 
There the Norman sails afar 15 

Catch the winds and join the war: 
Black and huge along they sweep, 
Burdens of the angry deep. 



20 



Dauntless on his native sands 
The dragon-son of Mona stands ; 
In glitt'ring arms and glory drest, 
High he rears his ruby crest. 
There the thund'ring strokes begin, 
There the press, and there the din ; 



father, A.D. 1120. The date I have altered, agreeably to 
the text of Mr. Jones, to A.D. 1137. 

V. 4. GwynetK] North Wales. 

v. 8. " With open heart and bounteous hand." 

Swift. Cad. and Van. 
V. 10. ** A battle round of squadrons three they shew." 
Fairfax. Tasso, xviii. 96. 

V. 13. «* And on her si adow rides in floating gold." 

Dry den. A. Mir. G. Steevens, 
V. 14. Lochlin] Denmark. 
" Watery way," Dryden. ^n. iii. 330. Rogers. 

V. 20. The red dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which 
all his descendants bore on their banners. Ma-son. 

v. 23. " It seems (says Dr. Evans, p. 26,) that the fleet 
landed in some part of the frith of Menai, and that it was a 
kind of mixt engagement, some fighting from the shore, others 
from the ships ; and probably the great slaughter was owing 



86 gbay's poems. 

Talymalfra's rocky shore 25 

Echoing to the battle's roar. 

Check'd by the torrent-tide of blood, 

Backward Meinai roUs his flood ; 

While, heap'd his master's feet around, 

Prostrate warriors gnaw the ground. so 

Where his glowing eye-balls turn. 

Thousand banners round him burn : 

Where he points his purple spear, 

Hasty, hasty rout is there. 

Marking with indignant eye 35 

Fear to stop, and shame to fly. 

There confusion, terror's child, 

Conflict fierce, and ruin wild, 

Agony, that pants for breath, 

Despair and honourable death. 40 



to its being low water, and that they could not sail. This will 
doubtless remind many of the spirited account delivered by 
the noblest historian of ancient Greece, of a similar conflict 
on the shore of Pylus, between the Athenians and the Spar- 
tans Tinder the gallant Brasidas. Thucyd. Bel. Pelop. lib. iv. 
cap. 12." 

V. 25. " Tal Moelvre." Jones. 

V. 27. This and the three following lines are not in the 
former editions, but are now added from the author's MS. 

Mason. 

V. 31. From this line to the conclusion, the translation is 
indebted to the genius of Gray, very little of it being in the 
original, which closes with a sentiment omitted by the trans- 
lator: " And the glory of our Prince's wide-wasting sword 
shall be celebrated in a hundred languages, to giv9 him hia 
merited praise." 



87 



THE DEATH OF HOEL. 

AN ODE. SELECTED FROM THE GODODIN.* 

[See S. Turner's Yindication of Ancient British Poems, p. BO. 
Warton's Engl. Poetry, toI. i. p. Ixiii.] 

Had I but the torrent's mighit, 

With headlong rage and wild affright 

Upon Dei'ra's squadrons hurl'd 

To rush, and sweep them from the world ! 



* Of Aneurin, styled the Monarch of the Bards. He flour- 
ished about the time of Taliessin, A. D. 670.1 This Ode is 
extracted from the Grododin. See Evans. Specimens, p. 71 and 
73. This poem is extremely difficult to be understood, being 
written, if not in the Pictish, at least in a dialect of the Britons, 
very different from the modern Welsh. See Evans, p. 68-75. 

" Aneurin with the flowing Muse, King of Bards, brother to 
Gildas Albanius the historian, lived under Mynyddawg of 
Edinburgh, a prince of the North, whose Eurdorchogion, or 
warriors wearing the golden torqvies, three hundred and sixty- 
three in number, were all slain, except Aneurin and two others, 
in a battle with the Saxons at Cattraeth, on the eastern coast 
of Yorkshire. His Gododin, an heroic poem written on that 
event, is perhaps the oldest and noblest production of that age." 
Jones. Belies, vol. i. p. 17. — Taliessin composed a poem called 
' Cunobiline's Incantation,' in emulation of excelling the Go- 
dodin of Aneurin his rival. He accomplished his aim, in the 
opinion of subsequent bards, by condensing the prolixity, with- 
out losing the ideas, of his opponent. 

V. 3. The kingdom of Deira included the counties of Tork- 
fihire, Durham, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumberland. 
See Jones. Relics, vol. i. p. 17. 



1 Mr. Jones, in his Belies, vol. i. p. 17, says, that Aneurin 
dourished about A. D. 510. 



68 gray's poems. 

Too, too secure in youthful pride, s 

By them, my friend, my Hoel, died, 
Great Cian's son : of Madoc old 
He ask'd no heaps of hoarded gold ; 
Alone in nature's wealth array'd, 
He ask'd and had the lovely maid. lo 

To Cattraeth's vale in glitt'ring row 
Twice two hundred warriors go : 
Every warrior's manly neck 
Chains of regal honour deck, 
Wreath'd in many a golden link : is 

From the golden cup they drink 
Nectar that the bees produce, 
Or the grape's extatic juice. 
Flush'd with mirth and hope they bum : 
But none from Cattraeth's vale return, ao 



V. 7. Cian^ In Jones. Relics, it is spelt *Kian.* 

V. 11- In the rival poem of Taliessin mentioned before, 
this circumstance is thus expressed: " Three, and threescore, 
and three hundred heroes flocked to the variegated banners 
of Cattraeth ; but of those who hastened from the flowing 
mead-goblet, save three, returned not. Cynon and Cattraeth 
with hymns they commemorate, and me for my blood they 
mutually lament." See Jones. Relics, vol. ii. p. 14. — " The 
great topic perpetually recurring in the Gododin is, that the 
Britons lost the battle of Cattraeth, and suffered so severely, 
because they had drunk their mead too profusely. The pas- 
sages in the Grododiu are numerous on this point." See Sharon 
Turner's Vindication of the Anc. British Poems, p. 51. 

V. 14. See Sayer's War Song, from the Gaelic, in his Poems, 
p. 174. 

V. 17. See Fr. Goldsmith. Transl. of Grotius. Joseph So- 
phompancas. p. 9. " Nectar of the Bees," and Buripid. 
Baccha9. v. 143. /6et 6e fj,e?it(Tadv vmrapu 



THE DEATH OF HOEL. '89 

Save Aeron brave, and Conan strong, 
(Bursting through the bloody throng,) 
And I, the meanest of them all, 
That live to weep and sing their fall. 24 



Have ye seen the tusky boar,* 
Or the bull, with sullen roar. 
On surrounding foes advance? 
So Caradoc bore his lance. 



\^ONAn's name, f my lay, rehearse, 
Build to him the lofty verse, 
Sacred tribute of the bard. 
Verse, the hero's sole reward. 
As the flame's devouring force ; 
As. the whirlwind in its course ; 



V. 20. In the Latin translation: "Ex iis autem, qui nimio 
potu madidi ad bellum properabant, non evasere nisi tres.** 

V. 21. Properly 'Conon,' or, as in the Welsh, ' Chynon.' 

v. 23. In the Latin translation: "Et egomet ipse sanguine 
rubens, aliter a.d hoc carmen compingendum non superstes 
fuissem." M. — " Gray has given a kind of sentimental 
modesty to his Bard which is quite out of place." QuaHeriy 
Review. 

* This and the following short fragment ought to have ap- 
peared among the Posthumous Pieces of Gray ; but it was 
thought preferable to insert them in this place, with the 
preceding fragment from the Gododiu. See Jones. Relies, 
vol. i. p. 17. 

t In Jones. Relics, vol. i. p. 17, it is * VedeVs name ; * 
and in turning to the original I see * Rhudd Fedel,' as well as 
in the Latin translation of Dr. Evans, p. 75, 

V. 2. " He knew himself ^o sing, and build the lofty rhyme.*^ 
Milt. Lycidas Luke. 

a 



90 gray's poems. 

As the thunder's fiery stroke, 
Glancmg on the shiver'd oak ; 
Did the sword of Conan mow 
The crimson harvest of the foe. 



SONNET. 

ON THE DEATH OF MB. RICHABD WEST. 

[See W. S. Landori Poemata, p. 186.] 

In vain to me the smiling mornings shine, 

And redd'ning Phoebus lifts his golden fire ; 
The birds in vain their amorous descant join. 

Or cheerful fields resume their green attire : 
These ears, alas ! for other notes repine, 

A difierent object do these eyes require: 
My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine ; 

And in my breast the imperfect joys expire. 



V. 9. " Primosque et extremos metendo stravit humum, 
sine elade victor." Hor. Od. iv. 14, 31. 

V. 1 Milt. P. L. V. 168, " That crown 'st the smiling morn.'^ 
Luke, 

V. 2. Lucret. vi. 204, " Devolet in terram liquid! color au- 
reus ignis. ^* Luke. 

V. 3. Milt. P. L. iv. 602, "She all night long her amorous 
descant sung." Luke. 

V. 8. " And in my ear the imperfect accent dies." 

Dryden. Ovid. Rogers. 

V. 12. Spens. B. Id. cant. iii. st. 5: "On these Cupido 
winged armies led, of little loves. " Luke. 

Y. 14. A line similai- to this occurs in Gibber's Alteration 
of Richard the Third, act ii. sc. 2: 



SONNET. 91 

Yet morning smiles the busy race to cheer, 
And new-born pleasure brings to happier men : 

The fields to all their wonted tribute bear; 
To warm their little loves the birds complain : 

I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear, 
And weep the more, because I weep in vain. 



EPITAPH ON MRS. JANE CLERKE. 

[See Woty's Poetical Calendar, part viii. p. 121. NicolPs 
Select Poems, vol. vii. p- 331.] 

This lady, the wife of Dr. John Gierke, physician at Bpsom, 
died April 27, 1757; and was buried in the church of 
Beckenham, Kent. 

Lo ! where this silent marble weeps, 
A friend, a wife, a mother sleeps : 
A heart, within whose sacred cell 
The peaceful virtues lov'd to dwell. 

" So we must weep, because we weep in vain." 
" Solon, when he wept for his son's death, on one saying to 
him, ' Weeping will not help,' answered : Ac avro de tovto 
daKpvG), OTL oi'dev uvvttco' * I weep for that very cause, that 
weeping will not avail.' " See Diog. Laert. vol. i. p. 39. ed. 
Meibomii. It is also told of Augustus. See also Fitzgeflfry'S 
Life and Death of Sir Francis Drake, B. 99. 
" Oh ! therefore do we plaine. 
And therefore weepe, because we weepe in vaine.'* 

See also Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. x. p. 139, and Bamfylde's 
Sonnets, p. 6. ed. Park. 

V. 1. ' This weeping marble had not ask'd a tear." 
Pope. Epitaph on Ed. D. of Buckingham. And Winds. For. 
" There o'er the martyr-king the marble weepa," 313. " Orat 
ie flebile Saxuni.^' liuiu. Aiithol. Lat. vol. ii. p. 282. 



92 gray's poems. 

Affection warm, and faith sincere, 5 

And soft humanity were there. 

In agony, in death re.'iign'd, 

She felt the wound slie left behind. 

Her infant image, here below, 

Sits smiling on a father's woe : 10 

Whom what awaits, while yet he strays 

Along the lonely vale of days ? 

A pang, to secret sorrow dear ; 

A sigh ; an unavailing tear ; 

Till time shall every grief remove, 15 

With life, with memory, and with love. 

Vax. V 7 — ]0. In agony, ^c] 

** To hide her cares her only art, 
Her pleasure, pleasures to impart. 
In ling'ring pain, in death resign'd. 
Her latest agony of mind 
Was felt for him who could not save 
His all from an untimely grave." MS. 



V 6. " And soft humanity that from rebellion fled," Dry- 
den. Thr. Aug. s. xii. " Bred to the rules of soft humanity,* 
ditto All for Lo\ e, act. ii. so. 1. " Oh ! soft humanity in age 
beloved," Pope. Epitaph ix. " The soft virtue of humanity, '* 
A. Smith. Mcir. Bent. v. i. p. 310. 



93 



jSPITAPH on sir WILTJAM WILLIAMS.* 



This Epitaph was written at the request of Mr. Frederick 
Montagu, who intended to have inscribed it on a monument 
at Bellisle, at the siege of which Sir W. Williams was killed, 
1761. See Mason's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 73 ; and vol. iv. 
p. 76; and H. Walpole's Lett, to G. Montagu, p. 244. See 
account of Sir W. P. Williams, in Brydges. Restituta, vol. 
iii. p. 53; and in Clubs of London, vol. ii. p. 13. "In the 
recklessness of a desponding mind, he approached too near 
the enemy's sentinels, and was shot through the body." 

" Valiant in arms, courteous and gay in peace, 
See Williams snatch 'd to an untimely tomb." 

Hall Stevenson's Poems, ii. p. 49. 



Here, foremost in the dangerous paths of fame, 
Young Williams fought for England's fair re- 
nown; 
His mind each Muse, each Grace adorn'd his 
frame. 
Nor envy dar'd to view him with a frown. 



* Sir William Peere Williams, bart. a captain in Burgoyne'8 
dragoons. 
V. 3. 'EtvEKev evEiriiic 'mwT6(ppovog, riv 6 jieALXpdc 
ijGKTjaev Movaiov, afifj.rya koI Xapiruv. 

Sophoc. Bpit. ed. Brunck. vol. i. p. 10. 

Tbv Muaaig <j)i?MV avdpa, rdv ov 'NvfKpaiotv aivixdri- 

Theocr. Idyll, a. 141, 

I recollect also the same expression in Gregory Nazianzen'a 
EpAtaph on Euphomius. 5vTog ov &l xu-pireg /j,6vGaig 66cav. 
" A thousand Graces round her person play. 
And all the Muses mark'd her fancy's way." 

A. Hill. Poems, vol. iii. p. 60. 



94 gray's poems. 

At Aix, his voluntary sword he drew, 

There first in blood his infant honour seal'd ; 

From fortune, pleasure, science, love, he flew, 
And scorn'd repose when Britain took the field 

With eyes of flame, and cool undaunted breast, 
Victor he stood on Bellisle's rocky steeps — lo 

Ah, gallant youth ! this marble tells the rest, 
Where melancholy friendship bends, and weeps. 



ELEGY WRITTEN IN A COUNTRY 
CHURCH- YARD. 

The manuscript variations in this poem, in the Wharton pa- 
pers, agree generally with those published by Mr. Mathias, 
vol. i. p. 65, in his edition of Gray's Works. See Barrington 
on the Statutes, p. 154. British Bibliog. vol. iii. p. viii. 

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea. 

The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. 
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 



V. 5. Sir William Williams, in the expedition to Aix, was 
on board the Magnanime with Lord Howe; and was deputed 
to receive the capitulation This expression has been adopted 
by Scott: 

** Since riding side by side, our hand 
First drew the voluntary brand.' 

Marmion, In trod, to Cant. iv. 

V. 1. " squilla di lontano 

Che paia 'I giorno pianger, che si muore.** 

Dante, Purgat. 1. 8. Gray 



ELEGY. 95 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight. 

And all the air a solemn stillness holds, a 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds : 

Var. V. 8. And] Or. MS. M. and W. 



** The curfew tolls ! — the knell of parting day.'* 
So I read, says Dr. Warton, Notes on Pope, vol. i. p. 82. 
Dryden has a line resembling this: 

*' That tolls the knell of their departed sense.*' 
See Prol. to Troilus and Cressida, ver. 22. And not dissimilar 
is Shakes. Henry IV. pt. ii. act i. sc. 2: 

" a sullen bell 

Remember'd knoUing a departed friend." 

V. 2. In the Diosem. of Aratus, this picture is drawn similar 
to that of the Engli.sli poet, ver. 387: 

11 (T ore fWK7]d(J.olo TzepcTrTisiOL uyepuvrai 
''Epxoftevat (rradfiovde 8oec BovTivaiov uprjv^ 
"SiKvdpal "KsLiioivbg Ttopteg koX fSovSoaiouo. 
And so Dionys. in his Perieg. ver. 190: 

'KeivoLg d' ovkote TEpwvbg aKoverat okKog ifia^rjc, 
Oi) 6e /?owv fWK7]6f/^c kg avTuov epxcfxevauv. 
See also Horn. Odyss. xvii. 170, pointed out by Wakefield. 
Add Petrarch, " Veggio la sera, i buoi tornare sciolte, de le 
eampagne e de solcate colli." 
V. 3. Spens. F. Q. b. vi. st. 7. c. 39: 

" And now she was upon the weary way.'* Luke. 
V. 4. A similar expression occurs in Petrarch, p. 124: 
" Quando '1 sol bagna in mar 1' aurato cerco, 
E 'I aer nostra, e la mia mente imbruna^'* 
" Has paid his debt to justice and to me." Dryd. Ovid. 

Rogers. 
*« E lascia il Mundo al Fosoombra." Ariosto. Rogers. 

V. 7. " Ere the bat hath flown 

His cloister'd flight ; ere, to black Hecate's summons. 
The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hum 
Hath rung night's yawning peal.'* Macb. act iii so. 2. 
And so Collins, in his Ode to Evening: 
** Or where the beetle winds 
His small, but sullen horn; 



^6 gray's roEMS. 

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tow'r, 

The moping owl does to the moon complain lo 

Of such as, wandering near her secret bow'r, 
Molest her ancient solitary reign. 

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade, 
Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring 
heap. 

Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, 15 

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep. 

As oft he rises midst the twilight path, 

Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum." W. 

V. 10. The « ignavus bubo " of Ovid. Met. v. 550. The 
two following passages might supply the images in the Elegy: 

'* Assiduous in his bower the wailing owl 
Plies his sad song." Thorns. Winter, 114. 

And ** the wailing owl 

Screams solitary to the mournful moon,** 

Mallett. Excursion, p. 244. 
V. 12. " Desertaque regna pastorum," Virg. Georg. iii. 
476. W. 

V. 13. De Lille, in his " Jardins," has imitated these stanzas 
of the Elegy, cant. iv. p. 86. 

V. 14. *' Those graves with bending osier bound. 

That nameless heave the crumbled ground.'* 

Parnell. Night Piece, 29. W. 
V. 15. See Hor. Od. i. iv. 17 : " Domus exilis Plutonia." 
The word domus, which answers to our poet's cell, is often 
in Latin authors put for sepulchrum; as may be seen by re- 
ferring to Burmann's Petronius, cap. 71 ; and Markland's • 
Statins, p. 255 : the reason of which is given in Barthelemy. 
Travels in Italy, p. 349. 

V. 17. ** And e'er the odorous breath of morn.** 

Arcades, ver. 66. 
** In Eden, on the humid flowers that breath 'd 
Their morning incense.** Par. L. b. ix. 192. W. 

A.nd so Pope. Messiah, ver. 24: 

" With all the incense of the breathing spring.'* 



ELEGY. 97 

The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, 
The swallow twitt'ring from the straw-built shed, 

The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, 
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed. 

For them no more the blazing hearth shall bum, 
Or busy housewife ply her evening care ; 22 

Var. V. 19. Or} And. MS. M. and W. 



V. 18. ** Mane jam clarum reserat fenestras. 
Jam strepit nidis vigilax hirundo." 

Auson. ed ToUii, p. 94. 
Hesiod gives the swallow a very appropriate epithet: x^^^-- 
ddv bpdpoy&r]' EjL>y. 667. Wakefield quotes Thomson. Au- 
tumn, ver. 835. " The swallow-people; — there they twitter 
cheerful." " Evandrum ex humili tecto lux suscitat alma, et 
matutini volucrum sub culmine cantus." v. Virg. JEn. viii. 455. 
V. 19. " When chanticlfer with clarion shrill recalls 
The tardy day." Philips. Cyder, i. 753. 
Wakefield cites Par. Lost, b. vii. 443: 

*' The crested cock, whose clarion sounds 
The silent hours." 
And Hamlet, acti. sc. 1. L' Allegro, ver. 53. To which add 
Quarles. Argalus and Parthenia, p. 22: 
** I slept not, till the early bugle-horn 
Of chaunticlere had summon 'd in the morn.'* 

Thomas Kyd has also joined the two images (England's 
Parnassus, p. 325): 

*« The cheerful cock, the sad night's trumpeter^ 
Wayting upon the rising of the sunne. 
The wandering swallow with her broken song." 
V. 21. Compare Apoll. Rhod. iv. 1062. 
*' Nam jam non domus accipiet se Iseta, neque uxor 
Optima, nee dulces occurrent oseula nati 
Praeripere." Lucretius, iil. 907. 

Horace has added to the picture an image copied by Gray: 
*• Quod si pudica muHcr, in partem juvet 
Domum, atque dulces liberos. 



98 gray's poems. 

No children run to lisp their sire's return, 
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share. 

Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, a 

Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke: 

How jocund did they drive their team afield! 
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy 
stroke. 

Let not ambition mock their useful toil, 

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure ; so 

Var. V. 24. Or] Nor. ms. W. 

V. 25. Sickh] Sickles. MS. W. 



Saxjrum et vetustis exstruat lignis focum 
Lassi sub adventum viri." 
See also Thomson. Winter, 311: 

" In vain for him the oflBcious wife prepares 
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm: 
In vain his little children, peeping out 
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire 
With tears of artless innocence." 
V. 24. " Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati.'* 

Virg. Georg. ii. v. 523. W 
So Dryden. ed. Warton, vol. ii. p. 565: 
*' Whose little arms about thy legs are cast, 

And climbing for a kiss prevent their mother's baste." 
See also Thomson. Liberty, iii. 171, and Ovid. Heroid. Ep. 
viii. 93. Hom. II. E. 408. 
V. 26. " 'Tis mine to tame the stubborn glebe.'* 

Gay. Fabl. p. ii. xv. Liike. 
V. 27. « He drove afield." Lycidas, 27. W. Add Dry- 
den. Virg. Bclog. ii. 38. " With me to drive afield," Luke 
** To drive afield by morn the fattening ewes." A. Philips. 
V. 28. " But to the roote bent his sturdie stroake. 

And made many woundes in the waste oake." 
Sponser. February. W. See also Dryden. Georg. iii. 639. 
" Labour him with many a sturdy stroke." 



ELEGY. 99 

Nor grandear hear with a disdainful smile 
The short and simple annals of the poor. 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of pow'r, 
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike th' inevitable hour. sa 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, 
If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, 

Var. V. 35. Awaif] Awaits MS. M. and W. 

V. 37, 38. "Forgive, ye proud, th' involuntary fault. 
If memory to these no trophies raise." 

MS. M. and W. 

V. 33. •■• Very like," says the editor, (in a note to the 
following passage of Cowley,) " in the expression as well as 
sentiment, to that fine stanza in Gray's Elegy, vol. ii. p. 213 
Hurd's ed. 

*' * Beauty, and strength, and wit, and wealthy and power. 
Have their short flourishing hour; 
And love to see themselves, and smile. 
And joy in their pre-eminence a while : 

E'en so in the same land 
Poor weeds, rich corn, gay flowers together stand. 
Alas ! Death mows down all with an impartial hand.* " 
Gray's stanza is, however, chiefly indebted to some verseg 
in his friend West's Monody on Queen Caroline: 
" Ah me ! what boots us all our boasted power. 
Our golden treasure, and our purple state; 
They cannot ward the inevitable hour. 
Nor stay the fearful violence of fate." 

Dodsley. Misc. ii. 279. 
V. 36. In Kippis. Biographia Britannica, vol. iv. p. 429, 
in the Life of Crashaw, written by Hayley, it is said that thia 
line is " literally translated from the Latin prose of Bartho- 
linus in his Danish Antiquities." See Hagthorpe. Poems, 
p. 47. " Glory doth thousands to the grave betray." 

V. 39. " the roof o' the chamber 

With golden cherubims is fretted" 

Cymbel. act ii. so. 4. tV, 



100 gray's poems. 

Where thro' the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault 
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise. « 

Can storied urn, or animated bust, 

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ? 
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust, 

Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death ? 

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 45 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 

Hands, that the rod of empire might have swaj'd, 
Or wak'd to extasy the living lyre : 

Var V. 47. Rod'\ Keins. MS. M. 



«* This majestical roof fretted with golden fire." 

Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2. 
V. 40. " There let the pealing organ blow. 
To the full -voiced quire below, 
In service high, and anthem clear " 

II Pens. 163. W. 
V. 41. ** Heroes in animated marble frown," Temple of 
Fame, 73. W. Add Virg. ^n. vi. 849. "vivos ducent de 
marmore vultus.^* Luke. 
V. 43. " But when our country's cause provokes to arms." 

Pope. Ode. 
V. 44. " And sleep in dull cold marble." 

Hen. VIII. act iii. se. 2. 
V. 47. " Sunt mihi quas possint sceptra decere manus," 
Ovid. Ep. V. ver. 86. " Proud names that once the reins of 
empire held," Tickell. Poem to E. of Warwick, ver. 37. 

V. 48. "Waken raptures high," Par. Lost, iii. 369. And 
Lucret. ii. 412: " Mobilibus digitis expergefacta figurant." 
*' Begin the song, and strike the living lyre.'* Cowley. 

And Pope. Winds. For. 281: 

" where Cowley strung 

His living harp, and lofty Denham sung." W. 
V. 60. " Rich with the spoils of nature." 

Brown. Bel. Med. p. 27. 



ELEGY. 101 

But knowledge to their eyes her ample page 
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; so 

Chill penury repress'd their nohle rage, 
And froze the genial current of the soul. 

Full many a gem of purest ray serene 

The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear : 

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, « 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 



V. 51. "So just thy skill, so regular my rage." 

Pope to Jervag. 

** Be justly wam'd with your own native rage." 

Pope. Prol. to Cato, 43. W. 
And, "How hard the task ! how rare the gndlike rage." 

Tickell. Prol. (Steele. Misc. p. 70.) 
V. 53. "That like to rich and various gems inlay 
The unadorned bosom of the deep." 

Comus, ver. 22. 
And see Young. " Ocean," st. xxiv. 

" There is many a rich stone laid up in the bowells of the 
earth, many a fair pearle in the bosome of the sea, that never 
was seene, nor never shall bee." Eishop Hall. Contempla- 
tions, 1. vi. p. 872. See Quai-t. Rev. No. xxii. p. 314. ad Fr. 
Barberini Poem, p. 148. Mapyapa t^o/Jm jSudvg cwyKpiinTei 
KV/biajL KOVTog. and see T. Warton. Milton, p. 234. 

V. 54. 'Acpavra Kcvdjuuvog fSadij. Lycophr. Cass. 1277. 

Mathias. 
V. 55. " Like roses that in deserts bloom and die." 

Pope. Rape of the Lock, iv. 157. V. 

Also Chamberlayne. Pharonida, part ii. b. iv. p. 94: 

"Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste their •^cen*' 
Of odours in unhaunted deserts." 

And Young. Univ. Passion, Sat. v. p. 128: 
" In distant wilds, by human eyes unseert. 

She rears her flow'rs, and spreads her velvet greem 
Pure gurgling rills the lonely desert trace. 
And waste their music on the savajce race." 



102 gray's roEMS. 

Some village-Hampden, that, witli dauntless 
breast, 

The little tyrant of his fields withstood, 
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, * ^9 

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood. 

Th' applause of list'ning senates to command, 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise, 

To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land. 

And read their history in a nation's eyes. 

Their lot forbade : nor circumscrib'd alone es 
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd ; 

Var. V. 58. FieldsJ Lands, erased in MS. M. 



Add Philip. Thule: 

*' Like woodland flowers, which paint the desert glades, 
And waste their sweets in unfrequented shades." 
For the expression " desert air," Wakefield refers to Pindar. 
01. i. 10: Ep^jUaf 61 aidepog. Also Fragm, Incert. cxvi. 
"Howl'd out into the desert air." Macbeth, act iv. sc. 3. 
Rogers. 

V. 58. "With open freedom toZe ^yran^s rag'd." 

Thorns. Winter. Luke. 
"The tyrants of villages." Johnson. Debates, i. 268. 
V. 59. So Philips, in his animated and eloquent preface to 
his Theatrum Poetarum, p. xiv. ed. Brydges: " Even the very 
names of some who having perhaps been comparable to Homer 
for heroic poesy, or to Euripides for tragedy, yet nevertheless 
sleep inglorious in the crowd of the forgotten vulgar.^* 

V. 60. Edwards, the author of " The Canons of Criticism," 
here added the two following stanzas, to supply what he 
ieemed a defect in the poem: 

*' Some lovely fair, whose unaffected charms 
Shone with attraction to herself unknown ; 
Whose beauty might have bless'd a monarch's arms. 
Whose virtue cast a lustre on a throne. 



ELEGY. 103 

Forbade to wade thro' slaughter to a throne, 
And shut the gates of mercj on mankind, 

The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, 
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, 7i 

Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride 
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame. 

^ar. V. 68. And} Or. MS. M. and W. 

V. 71. Shrine] Shrines, ms. W. 

V. 72. After this verse, in Gray's first MS. of the poem, 
were the four following stanzas: 

*' The thoughtless world to majesty may bow, 
Exalt the brave, and idolize success ; 



** That humble beauty warm'd an honest heart, 
And cheer'd the labours of a faithful spouse; 
That virtue form'd for every decent par^, 

The healthful offspring that adorn'd their house." 

V. 61. **Tho' wond\ing senates hung on all he spoke.'* 

Pope. Mor. Essays, i. 184. 

V. 63. "To scatter blessings o'er ttie British land." 

Tickell. 
*'Is scattering plenty o^er all the land." 

Eehn. Epilogue. 
V. 64. "For in their eyes 1 read a soldier's love." 

Eeau. and Fletch. vi. 135. Rogers. 
V. 67. "And swam to empire thro' the purple flood." 

Temple of Fame, 347. W. 
V. 68. "The gates of mercy shall be all shut up," Hen. V. 
act iii. so. 3. Also in Hen. VI. part iii. : " Open thy gate of 
mercy, gracious Lord." And so says an obscure poet: 

" His humble eyes, sighs, cries, and bruised breast, 
Forc'd ope the gates of mercy, gave him rest." 

Nath. Richards. Poems, Sacred and Satyrical, 12mo. 1641. 
p. 145. " Leetitiee janua clausa mca3 est," Ovid. Pont. ii. 
7. 38. 

V. 70. " Quench your blushes," Wint. Tale, act iv. so. 3, 



104 gkay's roExMS. 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, 
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray ; 

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life 7t 

They kept the noiseless tenour of their way. 



But more to innocence their safety owe, 

Than pow'r or genius e'er conspired to bless. 

** And thou who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead. 
Dost in these notes their artless tale relate. 
By night and lonely contemplation led 
To wander in the gloomy walks of fate : 

" Hark ! how the sacred calm, that breathes around. 
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease; 
In still small accents whisp'ring from the ground, 
A grateful earnest of eternal peace. 

" No more, with reason and thyself at strife, 
Give anxious cares and endless wishes room; 
But through the cool sequester'd vale of life 
Pursue the silent tenour of thy doom.'* 

And here the poem was originally intended to conclude, 
before the happy idea of the hoary-headed swain, &g. sug- 
gested itself to him. Mason thinks the third of these re- 
jected stajizas equal to any in the whole elegy. 



V. 73. " Far from the madding wordling's hoarse discords." 
Druramond. Rogers. 

V. 75. "Foe to loud praise, and friend to learned ease. 
Content with science, in the vale of peace. ^' 

Pope. Ep. to Fenton, 6. W. 
*'Mollia per placidam delectant otia vitam." 

Manil. Astr. iv. 512. 
V. 87. " Dias in luminis eras," Lucretius; i. 23. W. " E 
lascio mesta I'aure soave della vita e i giorni," Tasso G. L. 
c. ix. St. xxxiii. 

V. 88. So Petrarch. Tr. I'Amore, iv. ver. ult. 

*' Che *1 pie va innanzi, e 1' occhio torna indietro." 

Wakefield quotes a passage in the Alcestis of Euripides 
ver. 201. 



ELEGY. 105 

Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect, 
Some frail memorial still erected nigh, 

With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture 
deck'd, 
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh. so 

Their name, their, years, spelt by th' unletter'd 
Muse, 

The place of fame and elegy supply : 
And many a holy text around she strews, 

That teach the rustic moralist to die. 

For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, ss 

This pleasing anxious being e'er resigned, 

Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, 
Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind? 

On some fotid breast the parting soul relies, 
Some pious drops the closing eye requires ; flo 

Var V. 82. Elegy'\ Epitaph, ms. M. 

V. 89. So Drayton in his " Moses," p. 1564. vol. iv. ed. 
1763: 

" It is some comfort to a wretch to die, 

(If there be comfort in the way of death) 
To have some friend, or kind alliance by 
To be officious at the parting breath." 
v. 90. "piae lacrimge." Ovid. Trist. iv. 3. 41. 
" No friend's complaint, no kind domestic tear 
Pleas'd thy pale ghost, or grac'd thy mournful bier; 
By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed." 

Pope. Elegy, 8L 
And, « Then from his closing eyps thy form shall part." v. 80. 
And so Solon, ver. 5, ed. Brunck.: 

M??(5' kfj.6i uKTiavarog ■^dvaiog f.i6?.(;t^ a22,a (piloici 

H 



106 gray's poems. 

E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries, 
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires. 

For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead, 
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate ; 

If chance, by lonely contemplation led, 95 

Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate, — 

Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, 
" Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn 

Brushing with hasty steps the dews away. 

To meet the sun upon the upland lawn : 100 

Var. v. 92. E'en, livel And, glow. MS. M. and W. 
V. 92. " Awake and faithful to her wonted fires." 

First and second editions. 



V. 91. Some lines in the Anthologia Latina, p. 600. Ep. cliii. 
have a strong resemblance to those in the text: 
" Crede mihi vires aliquas natura sepulchris 
Adtribuit, tumulos vindicat umbra suos." 
So also Auson. (Parentalia), ed. Tollii, p. 109: 
" Graudent compositi cineres sua nomina diei." 
V. 92. " Ch' i veggio nel pensier, dolce mio fuoco, 

Fredda una lingua, e due begH ocehi chiusi 
Rimaner doppo noi pien di faville." 

Petr. Son. elxix. Gray. 
** Yet in our ashen cold, is fire yreken." 

Chaucer. Reve. Prol. ver. 3880. 
** Quamvis in cinerem corpus uiutaverit ignis, 
Sentiet ofBcium moesta favilia pium." 

Ovid. Trist. iii. 3. 83. 
'* Interea cave, sis nos adspernata sepultos, 
Non nihil ad verum conscia terra sapit." 

Propert. ii. 13. 41. 
Wakefield cites Pope. Ep. to M. Blount, ver. 72: 
** By this e'en now they live, e'en now they charm, 
Their wit still sparkling, and their flame still warm.*'* 
V. 98. " The nice mnm o'n the Trdian steep 
From her cabin'd loopl" le peep.'* 

Cuxiius, 140. see Todd. note. 



ELEGY. 107 

" There at the foot of yonder nodding beech, 
That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, 

His listless length at noontide would he stretch. 
And pore upon the brook that babbles by. lo* 

Var. V. 100. 

" On the high brow of yonder hanging lawn." 
After which, in his first MS., followed this stanza: 
'*^im have we seen the greenwood side along. 
While o'er the heath we hied, our labour done. 
Oft as the woodlark pip'd her farewell song, 
With wistful eyes pursue the setting sun." 
•' I rather wonder (says Mason) that he rejected this 
stanza, as it not only has the same sort of Doric delicacy 
which charms us peculiarly in this part of the poem, but also 
completes the account of his whole day: whereas, this evening 
Bcene being omitted, we have only his morning walk, and his 
noon-tide repose," 

V. 99. ■ " From off the ground, each morn. 

We brush mellifluous dews." Par. Lost, v. 429. 

So also Arcades, ver. 50: 

" And from the boughs brush off the evil dew.''* 

Add Tempest, act i. so. 4. 
V. 100. So Petrarch: 

"Re degli altri, superbo, altero fiume 

Che 'n contril sol, quando e ne mena il giorno." 
And Tasso, in his Sonnet to Camoens: 
" Vasco, te eui felice ardite antenne 
Incontro al sol cbe ne riporta il giorno," &c. 
And in another Sonnet: 

" Come va innanzi a V altro sol I'aurora," &C. 
V. 100. " Ere the hi^h lawns appeared 

Under the opening eyelids of the mom." 

Lycidas, 26. W. 
V. 102. Spenser, R. of Rome, s. xxviii. 

" Shewing her wreathed rootes and naked armes." Luke. 
V. 103. " His goodly length stretched on a lily bed^" 

Spens. B. Ida, c. 3. s. 2. Luke, 

V. 104. " Unde lonuaces lymvhm desiliunt tuie." 

Hor. Od. iii. 13.15. 
" He lay along 
Under an oak, whose antique root p(fp^d cut 



108 gkay's poems. 

" Hard bj yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, 
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove 

Now drooping, woful-wan, like one forlorn, 
Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in hopeless love. 

" One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill, 
Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree ; no 

Another came ; nor yet beside the rill. 

Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he : 

'* The next, with dirges due in sad array. 

Slow through the church-way path we saw 
him borne : — ii* 

Var. V. 106. He «w«Zrf] Would he. ms. M. and W. 
V. 109. On] From. ms. M. 



*' Upon the brook, that brawls along this wood.'* 

As You Like It, act ii. so. 1. W^ 
V. 105. " Yet at my parting sweetly did she smile 

In scorn." Shakespeare Sonnets. 

" smylynge halfe. in scorne 

At our foly." Skelton. Prol. to the Bouge of Courte, p. 59. 

"It makes me smile in scorn." App. and Virg. (Old Plays, 
vol. V. p. 363.) " Laughing in scorn." Massinger. B. Lover. 
Rogers. Milt. P. L. iv. 903, " Disdainfully half smiling." 

V. 107. " For pale and wmne he was, alas ! the while 

May seeme he lov^d or else some care he tooke." 
Spenser. January 8. W 

V. 109. " Simul assueta sidetque sub ulmo." 

Milt. Ep. Damonis. G. Steevens 
V. 114. " In the church-way paths to glide." 

Mids. N. Dr. act v. so. 2. W. 
V. 115. " Tell, (for you can,) what is it to be wise." 

Pope. Ep. iv. 260. TF 
** And steal (for you can steal) celestial fire." Young. 
" Sorutare tu causas (potes euim.)" Plin. Ep. iv. 30. 



ELEGY. 109 

Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay 
Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn." 

THE EPITAPH.* 

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth, 
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown : 

Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth, 
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own. 120 



* " Before the Epitaph," says Mason, " Gray originally 
inserted a very beautiful stanza, which was printed in some of 
the fiirst editions, but afterwards omitted, because he thought 
that it was too long a parenthesis in this place. The lines, 
however, are in themselves exquisitely fine, and demand pre- 
servation : 

*' ' There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year. 

By hands unseen are show'rs of violets found; 
The redbreast loves to build and warble there. 
And little footsteps lightly print the ground.' " 

V. 117. " How glad would lay me down. 

As in my mother'' s lap.^' Par. Lost, x. 777. 

AlsoSpens. F. Qu. v. 7. 9: 

•• On their mother earth's dear lap did lie." 

*' Redditur enim terrse corpus, et ita loeatum ac situm quasi 
openVnento main's obducetur." Cicero de Legibus, ii. 22. Lucr. 
i. 291. "gremium matris terrai." 

I cannot help adding to this note, the short and pathetic 
sentence of Plin. Hist. Nat. ii. 63. " Nam terra novissime 
complexa greniio jam a reliqud naturd abnegatos, turn, maxime, 
tit mater, operit.^' 

V. 119. " Quem tu, Melpomene, semel 

Nascentem placido lumine videris." 

Hor. Od. iv. 3. 1. W. 
V. 121, " Large was his soul, as large a soul as e'er 
Submitted to inform a body here." 

Cowley, vol. i . p. 119. 
"A passage which," says the editor, " Gray seemed to have 
had his eye on." 



110 gray's poems. 

Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere, 
Heav'n did a recompense as largely send ; 

He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear, 

He gain'd from heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a 
friend. 

No farther seek his merits to disclose, 128 

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, 

(There they alike in trembling hope repose,) 
The bosom of his Father and his God. 



V. 123. **Has lacrymas memori quas ictus amore, fundo 
quod possum." Luor. ii. 27. "His fame ('tis all the dead 
oan have) shall live." Pope. Horn. xvi. 656. 

V. 127. " paventosa speme," Petr. Son. oxiv. Gray. 

" Spe trepido," Lucan. vii. 297. W. And Mallet: 
" With trembling tenderness of hope and fear." 

Funeral Hymn, ver. 473 
•' Divided here twixt trembling hope and fear." 

Beaum. Psyche, c. xv. 314. 

Hooker has defined ' hope ' to be a " trembling expectation 
of things far removed," Eccl. Pol. B. I. cited in Quart. Rev. 
No, xxii. p. 315. 

In the Gentleman's Magaz. vol. lii. p. 20, it is asserted that 
Gray's Elegy was taken from Collins's Ode to Evening; while 
in the Monthly Rev. vol. liii. p. 102, it is said to be indebted 
to an Elegy by Gay. I see, however, no reason for assent- 
ing to these opinions. The passages from ' Celio Magno,* 
produced in the Edinb. Rev. vol. v. p. 51, are very curious, 
and form an interesting comparison. It is well known how 
much the Italian poet Pignotti is indebted to the works of 
Gray: some passages would have been given, but the editor 
was unwilling to increase the number of the notes, already per- 
haps occupying too much space. 



Ill 



A LONG STORY.* 



[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 130, and Pennant's Life 
p. 23.] 

Gray's Elegy in a Country Church-yard, previous to its publi- 
cation, was handed about in manuscript ; and had amungst 
other admirers the Lady Cobham, who resided at the man- 
sion-house at Stoke-Pogeis. The performance inducing her 
to wish for the author's acquaintance, her rehition. Miss 
Speed, and Lady Sehaub, then at her house, undertook to 
effect it. These two ladies waited upon the author at his 
aunt's solitary habitation, where he at that time resided; 
and not finding him at home, they left a card behind them. 
Mr. Gray, surprised at such a compliment, returned the 
visit. And as the beginning of this acquaintance bore some 
appearance of romance, he soon after gave a humorous ac- 
count of it in the following copy of verses, which he entitled 
«« A Long Story." Printed in 1753 with Mr. Bentley'a 
designs, and repeated in a second edition. MS. 

In Britain's isle, no matter where, 
An ancient pile of building stands: 

The Huntingdons and Hattons there 
Employ'd the pow'r of fairy hands 



* This Poem was rejected hj Gray m the Collection pub- 
lished by himself ; and though published afterwards by Ma- 
son in his Memoirs of Gray, he placed it amongst the Letters, 
together with the Posthumous Pieces ; not thinking himself" 
authorized to insert among the Poems what the author had 
rejected. 

V. 2. The mansion-house at Stoke-Pogeis, then in the x)os- 
session of Viscountess Cobham. The house formerly belonged 
to the earls of Huntingdon and the family of Hatton. Mason. 
Sir Edmond Coke's mansion at Stoke-Pogeis, now the seat of 
Mr. Penn, was the scene of Gray's Long Story. The antique 
chimneys liave been allowed to remain as vestiges of the Poet's 



112 gray's poems. 

To raise the ceiling's fretted height, 6 

Each panel in achievements clothing, 

Rich windows that exclude the light, 
And passages that lead to nothing. 

Full oft within the spacious walls, 

When he had fifty winters o'er him i» 

My grave Lord-Keeper led the brawls ; 

The seals and maces danc'd before him. 

His bushy beard, and shoe-strings green. 
His high-crown'd hat, and satin doublet, 

Mov'd the stout heart of England's queen, is 

Though Pope and Spaniard could not trouble it. 

What, in the very first beginning ! 

Shame of the versifying tribe ! 
Your hist'ry whither are you spinning ? 

Can you do nothing but describe ? 20 

A house there is (and that's enough) 
From whence one fatal morning issues 

fancy, and a column with a statue of Coke marks the former 
abode of its illustrious inhabitant. ©'Israeli. Cur. of Lit. 
(New Ser.) i. 482. Coke married Lady Hatton, relict of Sir 
William Hatton, sister of Lord Burlington. 
V. 7. " And storied windows richly dight, 

Casting a dim religious light." II Pens. 159. 
And Pope. Eloisa, 142: 

."Where awful arches make a noonday night, 

And the dim windows shed a solemn light." W. 

V. 11. Sir Christopher Hatton, promoted by Queen Elizabeth 

for his graceful person and fine dancing. Gray. See Hume's 

England, toI. v. p. 330. Naunton's Fragmenta Regalia, and 

Ocklandi Elizabetha m i. Barrington on the Statutes, p. 405. 



A LONG STORY. 113 

A brace of warriors, not in buff, 

But rustling in their silks and tissues. 

The first came cap-a-pee from France, 25 

Her conqu'ring destiny fulfilling, 

Whom meaner beauties eye askance, 
And vainly ape her ai't of killing. 

The other amazon kind heav'n 

Had arm'd with spirit, wit, and satire ; so 
But Cobham had the polish giv'n, 

And tipp'd her arrows with good-nature. 

To celebrate her eyes, her air — 

Coarse panegyrics would but tease her ; 

Melissa is her " nom de guerre." as 

Alas, who would not wish to please her ! 

With bonnet blue and capuchine. 

And aprons long, they hid their armour; 

And veil'd their weapons, bright and keen. 
In pity to the country farmer. 40 



V. 11. Brawls were a sort of French figure-dance, then in 
rogue. See England's Helicon, p. 101; Browne's Poems, vol. 
iii. p. 149, ed. Thompson; and the note by Steevens to Love's 
Lab. Lost, act iii. sc. 1. And so Ben Jonson, in a Masque, 
vol. vi. p. 27, ed. Whalley: 

" And thence did Venus learn to lead 
The Idalian brawls.'^ 
But see more particularly Marston. Malcontent, act iv. sc. 2, 
where it is described : 

*' "We have forgot the brawl," Ac 

See Dodsley. Old Plays, vol, ii. p. 210 



114 gra-y's poems. 

Fame, in tlie shape of Mr. P — t, 
(By this time all the parish know it) 

Had told that thereabouts there lurk'd 
A wicked imp they call a poet: 

Who prowl'd the country far and near, « 

Bewitch'd the children of the peasants, 

Dried up the cows, and lam'd the deer. 

And suck'd the eggs, and kill'd the pheasants. 

My lady heard their joint petition. 

Swore by her coronet and ermine, bo 

She'd issue out her high commission 

To rid the manor of such vermin. 

The heroines undertook the task. 

Thro' lanes unknown, o'er stiles they ventur'd, 

V. 41. It has been said, that this gentleman, a neighbour 
and acquaintance of Gray's in the country, was much displeased 
with the liberty here taken with his name : yet, surely, with- 
out any great reason. Mason. Mr. Robert Purt was Fellow 
of King's Coll. Cant. 1738. A.B. 1742, A.M. 1746; was an 
assistant at Eton school, tutor to Lord Baltimore's son there, 
and afterwards to the Duke of Bridgewater; in 1749 he was 
presented to the rectory of Settrington in Yorkshire, which he 
held with Dorrington in the same county: he died in Ap. 1752 
of the small pox. Isaac Reed. 

V. 61. Henry the Fourth, in the fourth year of his reign, 
issued out the following commission against this species of ver- 
min: — " And it is enacted, that no master-rimour, minstrel, 
or other vagabond, be in any wise sustained in the land of 
Wales, to make commoiths, or gatherings upon the people 
there." — *' Vagabond," says Ritson, " was a title to which the 
profession had been long accustomed." 

** Beggars they are with one consent, 
And rogues by act of parliament." 

Pref. to Anc. Songs, p xi. 



A LONG STORY. 115 

Rapp'd at the door, nor stay'd to ask, 65 

But bounce into the parlour enter'd. 



The trembling family they daunt, 

They flirt, they sing, they laugh, they tattle, 
Rummage his mother, pinch his aunt. 

And up stairs in a whirlwind rattle : 



60 



Each hole and cupboard they explore. 
Each creek and cranny of his chamber, 

Run hurry-scurry round the floor, 
And o'er the bed and tester clamber ; 

Into the drawers and china pry, «b 

Papers and books, a huge imbroglio ! 

Under a tea-cup he might Ke, 

Or creased, like dogs-ears, in a folio. 



There are still stronger Scotch statutes against them, some con- 
demning them and "such like fules " to lose their ears, and 
others their lives. By a law of Elizabeth, the English minstrels 
were pronounced "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," 
xxxix. Eliz. c. 4. s. 2. See Ritson's Engl. Songs, 1. liii. Bar- 
rington on the Statutes, p. 360. Dcdsley. Old Plays, xii. p. 
361. Strutt. Sports and Pastimes, p. 182 — 196. Puttenham. 
Art of Engl. Poesie. (1589) Lib. ii. c. 9. 

V. 67. There is a very great similarity between the style 
of part of this poem, and Prior. Tale of the ♦ Dove : * as for 
instance in the following stanzas, which Gray, I think, must 
have had in his mind at the time : 

«« With one great peal they rap the door. 

Like footmen on a visiting day: 

Folks at her house at such an hour. 

Lord ! what will all the neighbours sayl 
* * * * * 

** Her keys he takes, her door unlocks, 

Thro' wardrobe and thro' closet bounces. 



116 gray's poems. 

On the first marcliing of the troops, 

The Muses, hopeless of his pardon, to 

Convej'd him underneath their hoops 
To a small closet in the garden. 

So rumour says : (who will, believe.) 

But that they left the door ajar, 
Where, safe and laughing in his sleeve, n 

He heard the distant din of war. 

Short was his joy. He little knew 
The pow'r of magic was no fable ; 

Out of the window, whisk, they flew. 

But left a spell upon the table. m 

The words too eager to unriddle, 
The poet felt a strange disorder ; 

Transparent bird-lime form'd the middle, 
And chains invisible the border. 

So cunning was the apparatus, » 

The powerful pot-hooks did so move him, 

That, will he, nill he, to the great house 
He went, as if the devil drove him. 



Peeps into every chest and box, 

Turns all her furbelows and flounces. 
* * * * * 

** I marvel much, she smiling said. 
Your poultry cannot yet be found : 
Lies he in yonder slipper dead. 

Or may be in the tea-pot drovra'd.** 



A LONG STOKT 117 

Yet on his waj (no sign of grace, 

For folks in fear are apt to pray) 9 

To Phoebus he preferr'd his case, 

And begg'd his aid that dreadful day. 

The godhead would have back'd his quan*el ; 

But with a blush, on recollection, 
Own'd that his quiver and his laurel 95 

'Gainst four such eyes were no protection. 

The court was sat, the culprit there, 

Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping. 

The lady Janes and Joans repair. 

And from the gallery stand peeping : loo 

Such as in silence of the night 

Come (sweep) along some winding entry, 
(Styack has often seen the sight) 

Or at the chapel-door stand sentry : 

In peaked hoods and mantles tarnish'd, 105 

Sour visages, enough to scare ye, 
High dames of honour once, that garnish'd 

The drawing-room of fierce Queen Mary. 

The peeress comes. The audience stare, 

And doiF their hats with due submission: no 

She curtsies, as she takes her chair, 
To all the people of condition. 

V. 103. Styack] The housekeeper. G. 



118 gray's P0IC3IS. 

The bard, with many an artful fib. 

Had in imagination fenc'd liim, 
Disprov'd the arguments of Squib, im 

And all that Groom could urge against him. 

But soon his rhetoric forsook him, 
When he the solemn hall had seen ; 

A sudden fit of ague shook him. 

He stood as mute as poor Macleane. i» 

Yet something he was heard to mutter, 
" How in the park beneath an old tree, 

(Without design to hurt the butter, 
Or any malice to the poultry,) 

" He once or twice had penn'd a sonnet ; i^ 

Yet hop'd that he might save his bacon : 

Numbers would give their oaths upon it, 
He ne'er was for a conj'rer taken." 

Var. V. 116. Might, ms. 



V. 115. Squib] (Jroom of the chamber. G. 

James Squibb was the son of Dr. Arthur Squibb, the de- 
scendant of an ancient and respectable family, whose pedigree 
is traced in the herald's visitations of Dorsetshire, to John 
Squibb of Whitchurch in that county, in the 17th Bdw. IV. 
1477. Dr. Squibb matriculated at Oxford in 1656, took his 
degree of M.A. in November, 1662; was chaplain to Colonel 
Bellasis's regiment about 1685, and died in 1697. As he was 
in distressed circumstances tov»^ards the end of his life, his son, 
lames Squibb, was left altnost destitute, and was consequently 
apprenticed to an upholder in 1712. In that situation he 
attracted the notice of Lord Cobham, in whose service he con- 



A LONG STORY. 119 

The ghostly prudes with hagged face 
Ab-eady had condemn'd the sinner. iso 

My lady rose, and with a grace — 

She smil'd, and bid him come to dinner. 

" Jesu-Maria ! Madam Bridget, 

Why, what can the Viscountess mean ? " 

(Cried the square-hoods in woful fidget) 135 

" The times are alter'd quite and clean ! 

" Decorum's turn'd to mere civility ; 

Her air and all her manners show it. 
Commend me to her affability ! 

Speak to a commoner and poet 1 " I'W 

[Here five hundred stanzas are lost.] 

And so God save our noble king, 

And guard us from long-winded lubbers, 

That to eternity would sing. 

And keep my lady from her rubbers. 



tinued for many years, and died at Stowe, in June, 1762. His 
son, James 'Squibb, who settled in Saville Row, London, WM 
grandfather of George James Squibb, Esq. of Orchard Street, 
Portman Square, who is the present representative of this 
branch of the family. Nicolas. 

V. 116. Groom] The steward. G. 

V. 120. Macleane] A famous highwayman hanged the week 
before. G. 

See a Sequel to the Long Story in HakcwilPs History of 
Windsor, by John Penn, Esq. and a farther Sequel to that, by 
the late Laureate, H. J. Pye, Esq. 



120 UK ay's poems. 



POSTHUMOUS POEMS AND 
FRAGMENTS. 



ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM 
VICISSITUDE. 

Left unfinished by Gray. With additions by Mason, dis- 
tinguished by inverted commas. (I have read something 
that Mason has done in finishing a half-written ode of Gray. 
I find he will never get the better of that glare of colouring, 
* that dazzling blaze of song,' an expression of his own, and 
ridiculous ^nough, which disfigures half his writings. V. 
Langhorne s Lett, to H. More, i. 23.) See Musae Etonenses, 
u. p. 176. 

Now the golden morn aloft. 

Waves her dew-bespangled wing, 

V. 1. Sophocl. Antig. v. 103, :j;pi>!T£af dfiepac l3?^(j)apov- 
and Dyer. Fleece, lib. iii. " Grey dawn appears, the golden 
morn ascends." Luke. 

V. 3. " Vermeil cheek," see Milton. Comus, v. 749. Luke. 

V. 4. " Rorifera mulcens aura, Zephyrus vernas evocat 
herbas." Senec. Hipp. i. li. Luke. 

V. 8. " Half rob'd appears the hawthorn hedge. 
Or to the distant eye displays 
Weakly green its budding sprays." 

Warton. First of April, i. 180. 

See Mant's note on the passage. Add Buchan. Psalm zxiii 
p. 36. " Quae Veris teneri pingit amoenitas." 

V. 9. " Hinc nova proles, 

Artubus infirmis teneras lasciva per herbas 
Ludit." Lucret. i. 260. 



ODE. 121 

With vermeil cheek and whisper soft 

She wooes the tardy spring : 
Till April starts, and calls around » 

The sleeping fragrance from the ground ; 
And lightly o'er the living scene, 
Scatters his freshest, tenderest green. 

New-born flocks, in rustic dance, 

Frisking ply their feeble feet ; i» 

Forgetful of their wintry trance. 

The birds his presence greet : 
But chief, the sky-lark warbles high 
His trembling thrilling extasy ; 
And, lessening from the dazzled sight, is 

Melts into air and liquid light. 

Rise, my soul! on wings of fire, 
Rise the rapt'rous choir among ; 



** O'er the broad downs a novel race, 
Frisk the lambs with faltering pace.^* 

T. Warton, i. 185. 

V. 17. Mason informs us, that he has heard Gray say, that 
Gresset's " Epitre k ma Soeur " gave him the first idea of 
this ode; and whoever, he says, compares it with the French 
poem, will find some slight traits of resemblance, but chiefly 
in the author's seventh stanza. The following lines seem to 
have been in Gray's remembrance at this place: 

** Mon &me, trop long tems fletrie 
Va de nouveau s' epanouir; 
Bt loin de toute reverie 

Voltiger avec le Zephire, 
Occupe tout entier du soin du plaisir d'etre," «S;o. 

Lueret. v. 282, «' liquid! fons luminis." Milt. P. L. vii. 362, 
" drink the liquid light.** Luke, 

I 



122 gray's poems. 

Hark ! 'tis nature strikes the lyre, 

And leads the gen'ral song: 20 

* Warm let the lyric transport flow, 
Warm as the ray that bids it glow ; 
And animates the vernal grove 
With health, with harmony, and love. 

Yesterday the sullen year 

Saw the snowy whirlwind fly ; 
Mute was the music of the air, 

The herd stood drooping by : 
Their raptures. now that wildly flow, 
No yesterday nor morrow know ; w 

*Tis man alone that joy descries 
With forward and reverted eyes. 

Smiles on past misfortune's brow 
Soft reflection's hand can trace ; 

And o'er the cheek of sorrow throw 
A melancholy grace ; 



V. 25. Milt. Son. xx. 3. " Help waste a sullen day." 

Luke 
V. 31. *' Sure he that made us with such large discourse 

Looking before and after. ''^ Hamlet, act iv. SO. 4. 

**Imperat, ante videt, perpendit, prsecavit, infit." 

Prudent, p. 374. ed. Delph 

V. 41. " Where Pleasure's roses void of serpents grow." 

Thomson. C. of Ind. e. ii. st. Ivii. Luke. 

V. 43. Dr. "War ton refers to Pope. Essay on Man, ii. 270: 

** See some strange comfort every state attend. 
And pride hestow'd on all, a common friend: 
See some fit passion every age supply: 
Hope travels on, nor quits us till we die " 



ODE. 123 

While hope prolongs our happier hour, 

Or deepest shades, that dimly lower 

And blacken round our weary way, 

Gilds with a gleam of distant day. 40 

Still, where rosy pleasure leads, 

See a kindred grief pursue ; 
Behind the steps that misery treads. 

Approaching comfort view : 
The hues of bliss more brightly glow, 4.5 

Chastis'd by sabler tints of woe ; 
And blended form, with artful strife. 
The strength and harmony of life. 

See the wretch, that long has tost 

On the thorny bed of pain, 50 



S«e Casimir Od.: 

" Alterno redeunt choro 
Risus et gemitus, et madidis prope 

Sicci cum lacrymis joci 
Nascuntur mediis gaudia luctibus.'*— — 
V. 45. " Here sweet, or strong, may every colour flow; 
Here let the pencil warm, the colours glow; 
Of light and shade provoke the noble strife. 
And wake each striking feature into life.*' 

Brown. Essay on Satire, ii. 358 
V. 49. " ! jours de la convalescence ! 
Jours d'une pure volupte : 
C'est une nouvelle naissance, 
Un rayon d'immortalite. 
Quel feu ! tous les plaisirs ont vole dans mon dme, 

J'adore avec transport le celeste flambeau; 
Tout m'interesse, tout m' enflkme — 
Pour moi, I'univers est nouveau. 



Les plus simples objects ; le chante d'un Fauvette, 



124 gray's poems. 

At length repair his vigour lost, 
And breathe and walk again : 
The meanest floweret of the vale, 
The simplest note that swells the gale. 
The common sun, the air, the skies, . 55 

To him are opening paradise. 

Humble quiet builds her cell. 

Near the source whence pleasure flows ; 
She eyes the clear crystalline well. 

And tastes it as it goes. eo 

* While ' far below the ' madding ' crowd 
^ Rush headlong to the dangerous flood,' 
Where broad and turbulent it sweeps, 

* And ' perish in the boundless deeps. 

Mark where indolence and pride, 66 

* Sooth'd by flattery's tinkling sound,' 

Go, softly rolling, side by side. 
Their dull but daily round : 



Le matin d'un beau jour, la verdure des bois. 

La fraicheur d'une violette ; 
Milles spectacles, qu'autrefois 

On voyoit avec nonchalance, 
Transportent aujourd'hui, presentent.des appas 

Inconnus h. V indifference, 
Et que la foule ne voit pas." Gresset. torn. i. p. 145. 

V. 55. " Communemque prius, ceu lumina solis.** Ovid. 
Met. i. 135. " Nee solem proprium natura, nee aera fecit." 
Ovid. Met. vi. 350. " Ne lucem, quoque banc quae communis 
est." Cicero. «« Sol omnibus luoet." Pet. Arb. c. 100. « Com- 
munis cunctis viventibus aura." Prudent. Sym. ii. 86. _*' The 
common benefit of vital air." Dry den. 



ODE. 125 

To these, if Hebe's self should bring 
The purest cup from pleasure's spring, ro 

Say, can they taste the flavour high 
Of sober, simple, genuine joy ? 

* Mark ambition's march sublime 

Up to power's meridian height ; 
While pale-eyed envy sees him climb, 75 

And sickens at the sight. 
Phantoms of danger, death, and dread. 
Float hourly round ambition's head ; 
While spleen, within his rival's breast, 
Sits brooding on her scorpion nest. so 

* Happier he, the peasant, far. 

From the pangs of passion free. 
That breathes the keen yet wholesome air 

Of rugged penury. 
He, when his morning task is done, as 

Can slumber in the noontide sun ; 
And hie him home, at evening's close, 
To sweet repast, and calm repose. 



V. 56. " Balm from open'd Paradise." v. Fairfax. Tasao, 
iv. 75. Luke. " And Paradise was open'd in the wild." Pope. 
« And/jaradisewasopeTi'd in his face." Dryden. Absalom, ed. 
Derrick, vol. i. p. 116. 

v. 69. So Milton accents the word: 

** On the crystalline sky, in sapphire thron'd." 

Par. Lost, b. vi. ver. 772. 
V. 65. *'Tout s'^mousse dans I'habitude; 
L'araour s'endort sans volupte; 
Las des m^ines plnisirs, las de leur miiltituJe. 
Le sentiment n'est plus flatte." 



126 gray's poems. 

He, unconscious whence the bliss, 

Feels, and owns in carols rude, 
That all the circling joys are his, 

Of dear Vicissitude. 
From toil he wins his spirits light, 
From busy day the peaceful night ; 
Rich, from the very want of wealth, 
In heaven's best treasures, peace and health.* 



TRANSLATION OF A PASSAGE FROM 
STATIUS.* 

THEB. LIB. VI. VER. 704 — 724. 

Third in the labours of the disc came on. 
With sturdy step and slow, Hippomedon; 
Artfiil and strong he pois'd the well-known weight 
By Phlegyas warn'd, and fir'd by Mnestheus' fate, 
That to avoid, and this to emulate. « 

His vigorous arm he tried before he flung, 
Brac'd all his nerves, and every sinew strung ; 
Then, with a tempest's whirl, and wary eye, 
Pursu'd his cast, and hurl'd the orb on high ; 



* This translation, written at the age of twenty, which 
Gray sent to West, consisted of about a hundred and ten lines. 
Mason selected twenty-seven lines, which he published, as 
Gray's first attempt at English verse ; and to show how much 
he had imbibed of Dryden's spirited manner at that early 
period of his life. 



TRANLLATION FllOM STATIUS. 127 

The orb on high tenacious of its course, w 

True to the mighty arm that gave it force, 
Far overleaps all bound, and joys to see 
Its ancient lord secure of victory. 
The theatre's green height and woody wall 
Tremble ere it precipitates its fall ; is 

The ponderous mass sinks in the cleaving ground, 
While vales and woods and echoing hills rebound. 
As when from Etna's smoking summit broke. 
The eyeless Cyclops heav'd the craggy rock ; 
Where Ocean frets beneath the dashing oar, 20 
And parting surges round the vessel roar ; 
'Twas there he aim'd the meditated harm, 
And scarce Ulysses scap'd his giant arm. 
A tiger's pride the victor bore away. 
With native spots and artful labour gay, 2s 

A shining border round the margin roU'd, 
And calm'd the terrors of his claws in gold. 

Cambridge, May 8, 1736. 



V. 12. V. Milt. P. L. iv. 181, « At one slight bound high 
overleap'd all bound." Luke. 

V. 14. V. Milt. P. L. iv. 140, " As the ranks ascend shade 
above shade, a woody theatre of stateliest view." Luke 



128 gray's poems. 



THE FRAGMENT OF A TRAGEDY, 

DESIGNED BY MR. GHAT ON THE SUBJECT OP THE DEAFH 
OF AGRIPPINA.* 



** The Britannicus of Eacine, I know, was one of Gray's most 
favourite plays; and the admirable manner in which I have 
heard him say that he saw it represented at Paris, seems to 
have led him to choose the death of Agrippina for his first and 
only effort in the drama. The execution of it also, as far as 
it goes, is so very much in Racine's taste, that I suspect, if 
that great poet had been born an Englishman, he would have 
written precisely in the same style and manner. However, as 
there is at present m this naticm a general prejudice against 
declamatory plays, I agree with a learned friend, who perused 
the manuscript, that this fragment will be little relished by 
the many; yet the admirable strokes of nature and character 
with which it abounds, and the majesty of its diction, prevent 
me from withholding from the few, who I expect will relish it, 
80 great a curiosity (to call it nothing more) as part of a tra- 
gedy written by Gray. These peri*ons well know, that till 
style and sentiment be a little more regarded, mere action and 
passion will never secure reputation to the author, whatever 
they may do to the actor. It is the bu.^iuess of the one 'to 
strut and fret his hour upon the stage ; ' and if he frets and 
struts enough, he is sure to find his reward in the plaudit of an 
upper gallery; but the other ought to have some regard to the 
cooler judgment of the closet: for I will be bold to say that 
if Shakespeare himself had not written a multitude of passages 
which please there as much as they do on the stage, his repu- 
tation would not stand so universally high as it does at present. 
Many of these passages, to the shame of our theatrical taste, 
are omitted constantly in the representation: but I say not 
this from conviction that the mode of writing, which Gray pur- 
sued, is the best for dramatic purposes. I think myself, what 

♦ Sep Taoitas*s Annals, book xiii. xiv. Mason. 



AGRIFPINA. 129 

I have asserted elsewhere,* that a medium between the French 
and English taste would be preferable to either ; and yet this 
medium, if hit with the greatest nicety, would fail of success 
on our theatre, and that for a very obvious reason. Actors (I 
speak of the troop collectively) must all learn to speak as well 
as act, in order to do justice to such a drama. 

" But let me hasten to give the reader what little insight I 
esCn into Gray's plan, as I find and select it from two detached 
papers. The Title and Dramatis Personse are as follow." 
(See Mason. Life of Gray, vol. iii. p. 8.) 



AGRIPPINA, A TRAGEDY. 

[It appears that Lord Hervey left in MS. a tragedy of Agrip- 
pina, in rhymed verse: see Walpole's Noble Authors, p. 453. 
There is a tragedy of Agrippina by Lohenstein: see Resume 
de 1' Hist. Allemande par A. L. Veimars, p. 271. See Gib- 
ber's Lives of the Poets, vol. ii. p. 8.] 

DRAMATIS PEKSON^ 

Agrippina, the Empress-mother. 

Nbko, the Emperor. 

Popp^A, believed to be in love with Otho. 

Otho, a young man of quality, in love with PopPiBlA. 

Seneca, the Emperor's Preceptor. 

Anicetus, Captain of the Guards. 

DEMETBrus, the Cynic, friend to Seneca. 

AcEEONiA, Confidante to Agripplna. 

Scene — The Emperor's villa at Baice. 

** The argument drawn out by him, in these two papers, under 
the idea of a plot and uuder-plot, I shall here unite; as it will 
tend to show that the action itself was possessed of sufficient 
unity. 

** The drama opens with the indignation of Agrippina, at re- 
ceiving her son's orders from Anicetus to remove from Baiee, 
and to have her guard taken from her. At this time, OthOj 



* See Letters prefixed to Elfrida, particularly Letter [I. 



130 (Jrat's poems. 

having conveyed Poppsea from the house of her husband Ka- 
fus Ciispiaus, brings her to Baise, where he means to conceal 
her among the crowd; or, if his fraud is discovered, to have 
recourse to the Emperor's authority; but, knowing the law- 
less temper of JNero, he determines not to have recourse to 
that expedient but on the utmost necessity. In the mean 
time he commits her to the care of Anicetus, whom he takes 
to be his friend, and in whose age he thinks he may safely 
confide. JNero is not j^et come to Baife : but Seneca, whom 
he sends before him, informs Agrippina of the accusation con- 
cerning Rubellius Plancus, and desires her to clear herself, 
which she does briefly : but demands to see her son, who, on 
his arrival, acquits her of all suspicion, and restores her to 
her honours. In the mean while, Anicetus, to whose oare 
Poppaea had been intrusted by Otho, contrives the following 
plot to ruin Agrippina : he betrays his trust to Otho, and 
brings Nero, as it were by chance, to the sight of the beautiful 
Poppaea; the Emperor is immediately struck with her charms, 
and she, by a feigned resistance, increases his passion: though, 
in reality, she is from the first dazzled with the prospect of 
empire, and forgets Otho : she therefore joins with Anicetus 
in his design of ruining Agrippina, soon perceiving that it will 
be for her interest- Otho, hearing that the Emperor had seen 
Poppsea, is much enraged ; but not knowing that this interview 
was obtained through the treachery of Anicetus, is readily 
persuaded by him to see Agrippina in secret, and acquaint her 
with his fears that her son Ne.o would marry Poppaea. Agrip- 
pina, to support her own power, and to wean the Emperor from 
the love of Poppsea, gives Otho encouragement, and promises 
to support him. Anicetus secretly introduces Nero to hear 
their discourse, who resolves immediately on his mother's death, 
and, by Anicetus's means, to destroy her by drowning. A 
solemn feast, in honour of their reconciliation, is to be made; 
after which, she being to go by sea to Bauli, the ship is so con- 
trived as to sink or crush her: she escapes by accident, and 
returns to Baiae. In this interval, Otho has an interview with 
Poppaea; and being duped a second time by Anicetus and her, 
determines to fly with her into Greece, by means of a vessel 
which is to be furnished by Anicetus; but he, pretending to 
remove Poppgea on board in the night, conveys her to Nero's 
apartment: she then encourages and determines Nero to banish 
Otho, and finish the horrid deed he had attempted on his mo- 
ther. Anicetus undertakes to execute his resolves; and, under 
pretence of a plot upon the Emperor's life, is sent with a guard 
to murder Agrippina, who is still at Baiae in imminent fear, 
and irresolute how to conduct herself. The account of her 
death, and the Emperor's horror and fruitless remorse, finishes 
the drama." Mason. 



AGIUFPINA. 131 

ACT I. SCENE 1. 

AGBIPPINA. ACEBONIA. 

Agrip. 'Tis well, begone ! your errand is per- 
form'd, \_Spea1cs as to Anicetus entering. 
The message needs no comment. Tell your master, 
His mother shall obey him. Say you saw her 
Yielding due reverence to his high command : 
Alone, unguarded and without a lictor, 5 

As fits the daughter of Germanicus. 
Say, she retir'd to Antium ; there to tend 
Her household cares, a woman's best employment. 
What if you add, how she turn'd pale and trembled: 
You think, you spied a tear stand in her eye, 10 
And would have dropp'd, but that her pride re- 

strain'd it ? 
(Go ! you can paint it well) 'twill profit you. 
And please the stripling. Yet 'twould dash his joy 
To hear the spirit of Britannicus 
Yet walks on earth : at least there are who know 
Without a spell to raise, and bid it fire i« 

A thousand haughty hearts, unus'd to shake 
When a boy frowns, nor to be lured with smiles 
To taste of hollow kindness, or partake 
His hospitable board : they are aware 20 

Of th' unpledg'd bowl, they love not aconite. 



V. 19. So in the Britannicus of Racine, act. iv. sc. 2, Agrip 
pina says: 

" Vous 6tes nn ingrat, vous le futes toujours. 
Des vos plus jeunes ans, mes soins et mes tendresses 
jN'ont arrache de vous, que defeintes caresses." 



132 gray's poems. 

Acer. He's gone: and much I hope these 
walls alone 
And the mute air are privy to your passion. 
Forgive your servant's tears, who sees the danger 
Which fierce resentment cannot fail to raise 25 
In haughty youth, and irritated power. 

Agrip. And dost thou talk to me, to me of dan- 
Of haughty youth and irritated power, [ger, 

To her that gave it being, her that arm'd 
This painted Jove, and taught his novice hand so 
To aim the forked bolt ; while he stood trembling, 
Scar'd at the sound, and dazzled with its bright- 
ness? 

'Tis like, thou hast forgot, when yet a stranger 
To adoration, to the grateful steam 
Of flattery's incense, and obsequious vows ss 

From voluntary realms, a puny boy, 
Deck'd with no other lustre than the blood 
Of Agrippina's race, he liv'd unknown 
To fame or fortune ; haply eyed at distance 
Some edileship, ambitious of the power 40 

To judge of weights and measures ; scarcely dar*d 
On expectation's strongest wing to soar 
High as the consulate, that empty shade 

V. 29. 

" II m61e avec I'orgueil qu'il a pris dans leur sang. 
La fierte des Nerons, qu'il puisa dans mon flanc." 

Britannicus, act i. sc. 1. 
V. 38. So Elegy (Bpitapli): "A youth, to fortune and to 
fame unknown." 
V. 45. 

" Ce jour, ce triste jour, frappe encor ma memoire; 
Ou Neron fut lui-m6me ebloui de sa gloire." 

Britannicus, act 1. so. 1. 



SlGkippina. 133 

Of long-for gotten liberty : when I « 

Oped his young eye to bear the blaze of greatness; 
Shew'd him where empire tower'd, and bade him 

strike 
The noble quarry. Gods ! then was the time 
To shrink from danger ; fear might then have worn 
The mask of prudence ; but a heart like mine, 
A heart that glows with the pure Julian fire, so 
If bright ambition from her craggy seat 
Display the radiant prize, will mount undaunted, 
Gain the rough heights, and grasp the dangerous 
honour. [steps, 

Acer. Thro' various life I have pursued your 
Have seen your soul, and wonder'd at its daring : 
Hence rise my fears. Nor am I yet to learn b& 
How vast the debt of gratitude which Nero 
To such a mother owes ; the world, you gave him, 
Suffices not to pay the obligation. 

I well remember too (for I was present) «) 
When in a secret and dead hour of night. 
Due sacrifice perform'd with barb'rous rites 
Of mutter'd charms, and solemn invocation. 
You bade the Magi call the dreadful powers, 
That read futurity, to know the fate « 



** Haec (exclamat) mihi pro tanto 
Munere reddis prsemia, gnatel 
Hao sum, fateor, digna carinci 
Quae te genui, quae tibi lucem 
Atque imperium, nomenque dedi 
Csesaris, amens." 
Agrippina's Speech in Seneoa*s Octavia, ver. 333. 
V. 64. On Nero's Magical studies, consult Plinii. Nat. Hist 
lib. XXX. cap. 6. 



134 geay's poems. 

Impending o'er your son: their answer was, 
If the son reign, the mother perishes. 
Perish (you cried) the mother ! reign the son ! 
He reigns, the rest is heav'n's ; who oft has bade, 
Ev'n when its will seem'd wrote in lines of blood, 70 
Th' unthought event disclose a whiter meaning. 
Think too how oft in weak and sickly minds 
The sweets of kindness lavishly indulg'd 
Rankle to gall ; and benefits too great 
To be repaid, sit heavy on the soul, 7S 

As unrequited wrongs. The willing homage 
Of prostrate Rome, the senate's joint applause. 
The riches of the earth, the train of pleasures 
That wait on youth, and arbitrary sway : 
These were your gift, and with them you bestow'd 
The very power he has to be ungrateful. a. 

Agrip. * Thus ever grave and undisturb'd re- 
flection 
Pours its cool dictates in the madding ear 
Of rage, and thinks to quench the fire it feels not. 
Say'st thou I must be cautious, must be silent, m 
And tremble at the phantom I have raised? 
Carry to him thy timid counsels. He 
Perchance may heed 'em : tell him too, that one 
Who had such liberal power to give, may still 



* In Gray's MS. Agrippina's was one continued speech 
from this line to the end of the scene. Mr. Mason informs us, 
that he has altered it to the state in which it now stands. 

v. 91. " Et c'est trop respecter 1' ouvrage de mes mains.*' 
Britannicus, act iii. sc. 3. 

V. 98. " And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies.** 

Hen. V. act ii, Chor. Rogers- 



A-GRIPPINA. 135 

With equal power resume that gift, and raise 9o 
A tempest that shall shake her own creation 
To its original atoms — tell me ! say 
Phis mighty emperor, this dreaded hero, 
Has he beheld the glittering front of war ? 
Knows his soft ear the trumpet's thrilling voice, m 
And outcry of the battle ? Have his limbs 
Sweat under iron harness ? Is he not 
The silken son of dalliance, nurs'd in ease 
And pleasure's flow'ry lap ? — Rubellius lives, 
And Sylla has his friends, though school'd by fear 
To bow the supple knee, and court the times loi 
With shows of fair obeisance ; and a call. 
Like mine, might serve belike to wake pretensions 
Drowsier than theirs, who boast the genuine blood 
Of our imperial house. [passion, 

Acer. Did I not wish to check this dangerous 
I might remind my mistress that her nod wi 

Can rouse eight hardy legions, wont to stem 
With stubborn nerves the tide, and face the rigour 
Of bleak Germania's snows. Four, not less brave, 
That in Armenia quell the Parthian force m 
Under the warlike Corbulo, by you 
Mark'd for their leader : these, by ties confirm'd, 
Of old respect and gratitude, are yours. 
Surely the Masians too, and those of Egypt, U6 



V. 99. V. Seneeae Octav. 437. Nero enters, "Perage im- 
perata, mitte qui Plauti mi hi, SuUseque csesi referat abscissum 
caput." i. e. Plauti Rubellii. 

V. 110. But Tacitus says: " Sed Corbuloni plus molls ad- 
versus ignaviam militum, quam contra perfidium hostium, orat." 
V. Annales, xiii. 35. 



136 gray's poems. 

Have not forgot your sire : the eye of Rome, 
And the Praetorian camp, have long rever'd. 
With custom'd awe, the daughter, sister, wife, 
And mother of their Caesars. 

Agrip. Ha ! by Juno, 

It bears a noble semblance. On this base la 
My great revenge shall rise ; or say we sound 
The trump of liberty ; there will not want. 
Even in the servile senate, ears to own 
Her spirit-stirring voice ; Soranus there, 
And Cassius ; Vetus too, and Thrasea, 126 

Minds of the antique cast, rough, stubborn souls, 
That struggle with the yoke. How shall the spark 
Unquenchable, that glows within their breasts, 
Blaze into freedom, when the idle herd 
(Slaves from the womb, created but to stare, la 
And bellow in the Circus) yet will start, 
And shake 'em at the name of liberty, 
Stung by a senseless word, a vain tradition, 
As there were magic in it ? Wrinkled beldams 
Teach it their grandchildren, as somewhat rare 
That anciently appear'd, but when, extends laa 
Beyond their chronicle — oh ! 'tis a cause 



V. 118. 
*' Et moi, qui sur le trone ai suivi mes ancdtres, 
Moi, fille, femme, saeury et mere de vos mattres.** 

Britannicus, act i. sc. 2. 
V. 124. " The spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife." 

Othello, act iii. sc. 3. 

■ " the spirit-stirring form 

Of Caesar, raptur'd with the charms of rule." Dyer. Rome. 
V. 147. " The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born." 
Bard. 



A-GRIPPINA. lo7 

To arm the hand of childhood, and rebrace 
The slacken'd sinews of time-wearied age. 

Yes, w.e may meet, ungrateful boy, we may ! 
Again the buried Genius of old Rome wi 

Shall from the dust uprear his reverend head, 
Rous'd by the shout of millions : there before 
His high tribunal thou and I appear. 
Let majesty sit on thy awful brow, 145 

And lighten from thy eye : around thee call 
The gilded swarm that wantons in the sunshine 
Of thy full favour ; Seneca be there 
In gorgeous phrase of labour'd eloquence 
To dress thy plea, and Burrhus strengthen it iso 
With his plain soldier's oath, and honest seeming. 
Against thee, liberty and Agrippina : 
The world, the prize ; and fair befall the victors. 

But soft ! why do I waste the fruitless hours 
In threats unexecuted ? Haste thee, fly 155 

These hated walls that seem to mock my shame, 
And cast me forth in duty to their lord. 

Acer. 'Tis time to go, the sun is high advanc'd, 
And, ere mid-day, Nero will come to Baise. 

V. 148. " Hi rectores imperatoriae juventae, et pari in so- 
cietate potentise, Concordes, livers^ arte, ex aequo pollebant. 
Burrus militaribus euris, et severitate moruin: Seneca praj- 
ceptis eloquentise, et comitate honest^.'* Taciti Annales, xiii. 

13.2. 

V. 149. See Senecas Octav. v. 377. 

V. 150. So in tbe speech of Burrhus in the Britannicus of 
Racine, act i. sc 2 

" Je repondrai, madame ; avee la liberte 
D'un soldat, que sait mal farder la verite." 
And again, act i. so. 2 : 
** Burrhus pour le mensonge, eut toujours trop d'horreur." 
K 



138 gray's poems. 

Agrip. My thought aches at him ; not the 

basilisk 
More deadly to the sight, than is to me i6« 

The cool injurious eye of frozen kindness. 
I will not meet its poison. Let him feel 
Before he sees me. 

Acer, Why then stays my sovereign, 

Where he so soon may — 

Agrip. Yes, I will be gone, les 

But not to Antium — all shall be confess'd, 
Whate'er the frivolo-is tongue of giddy fame 
Has spread among the crowd ; things, that but 

whisper'd 
Have arch'd the hearer's brow, and riveted 
His eyes in fearful e xtasy : no matter vo 

What ; so't be strange and dreadful. — Sorceries, 
Assassinations, poisonings — the deeper 
My guilt, the blacker his ingratitude. 

And you, ye manes of ambition's victims, 
Enshrined Claudius, with the pitied ghosts 175 
Of the Syllani, doom'd to early death, 
(Te unavailing horrors, fruitless crimes !) 

V. 169. " Whom have I hurtl has poet yet or peer 

Lost the arched eyebrow, or Parnassian sneerl ** 
Pope. Prol. to the Satires, ver. 95. 
" To arch the brows which on them gaz'd." 

V. Marvell. Poems, i. 45. 
V. 172. " Pour rendrc sa puissance, et la votre odieuses, 
J' avourai les rumeurs Ics plus injurieuses, 
Je confesserai tout, exils, assassin ats. 
Poison m^xne, '' Britannicus, act iii. se. 3. 

Bee also Taciti Annales, lib. xiii. c. 15. 

V. 176. " Pro facinus ingens ! foeminse est munus datu9 



AGRIPPINA. 139 

If from the realms of night my voice ye hear, 
In lieu of penitence, and vain remorse, 
Accept my vengeance. Though by me ye bled, 
He was the cause. My love, my fears for him, 
Dried the soft springs of pity in my heart, 
And froze them up with deadly cruelty. 
Yet if your injur'd shades demand my fate, 
If murder cries for murder, blood for blood, iss 
Let me not fall alone ; but crush his pride. 
And sink the traitor in his mother's ruin. 

SCENE II. — OTHO, POPP^A. 

Otho. Thus far we're safe. Thanks to the 
rosy queen 
Of amorous thefts : and had her wanton son 
Lent us his wings, we could not have beguil'd iw 
With more elusive speed the dazzled sight 
Of wakeful jealousy. Be gay securely ; 
Dispel, my fair, with smiles, the tim'rous cloud 
That hangs on thy clear brow. So Helen look'd. 
So her white neck reclin'd, so was she borne las 



Silanus, et cruore foedavit suo 
Patrios Penates, criminis ficti reus." 

Senecae Octavia, ver. 148. 
And see Taciti Annales, xii. c. 3, 4. 

V. 195. "Obstipum caput et tereti cervice refiexum." 

Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 42. 
*' Et caput inflexd, lentum cervice recumbit 

Marmored." Virgilii Ciris. 449. 

" NiveA cervice reclinis 
Mollitur ipsa." Manil. Astron. 5. v. 555. 

This particular beauty is also given to Helen by Constantine 



140 gray's poems. 

By the young Trojan to his gilded bark 
With fond reluctance, yielding modesty, 
And oft reverted eye, as if she knew not 
Whether she fear'd, or wish'd to be pursued. 



HYMN TO IGNORANCE. 

A PRA.GMENT. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 75. Supposed to be written 
about the year 1742, when Gray returned to Cambridge.] 

Hail, horrors, hail ! ye ever gloomy bowers, 
Ye gothic fanes, and antiquated towers. 
Where rushy Camus' slowly winding flood 
Perpetual draws his humid train of mud : 



Manasses, in his " Annales,*' (see Meursii Opera, vol. vii 
p. 390): 

Aeip^ fiuKpd KaraAevKog, 59sv efivdovpyfiOrj 
Kvuvoyevf] ttjv evonrov ''E?i£V7jv ;:t;p77/zdriC«v. 
And so also in the Antehomerica of Tzetzes, ed. Jacobs, p. 115 
(though the passage is corrupted). 

** That soft cheek springing to the marble neckt 
Which bends aside in vain." 

Akenside. PI. of Imag. b. i. p. 112. ed. Park. 
V. 197. See Milton. Par. L. iv. 310: 

** Yielded with coy submission, modest pride, 
And sweet, reluctant amorous delay." Luke 

V. 1. "Hail, horrors, hail ! " Milton. Par. L. i. 205. 
V. 3. "Jam nee arundiferum mihi eura revisere Camum** 
Miltoni Eleg. i. 11. and 89. "^uncosos Garni remeare^aZurfes. 
huke. 



HYMN TO IGNORANCE. 141 

Glad I revisit thy neglected reign, s 

Oh take me to thy peaceful shade again, [high 
But chiefly thee, whose influence breathed from 
Augments the native darkness of the sky ; 
Ah, ignorance ! soft salutary power ! 
Prostrate with filial reverence I adore. lo 

Thrice hath Hyperion roll'd his annual race. 
Since weeping I forsook thy fond embrace. 
Oh say, successful dost thou still oppose 
Thy leaden aegis 'gainst our ancient foes ? 
Still stretch, tenacious of thy right divine, is 

The massy sceptre o'er thy slumb'ring line ? 
And dews Lethean through the land dispense 
To steep in slumbers each benighted sense ? 
If any spark of wit's delusive ray 
Break out, and flash a momentary day, ao 

With damp, cold touch forbid it to aspire. 
And huddle up in fogs the dang'rous fire. 

Oh say — she hears me not, but, careless grown, 
Lethargic nods upon her ebon throne. 



V. 4. " Where rivers now 

Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train.** 

Milton. Par. Lost, vii. 310. 

V. 14. **To hatch a new Saturnian age of lead." 

Pope. Dunciad, i. 28. 

And so in the speech of Ignorance in " Henry and Minerva," 
by I. B. 1729 (one among the poetical pieces bound up by Pope 
in his library, and now in my possession): 

** Myself behind this ample shield of leady 
Will to the field my daring squadrons head." 

V. 17. "Let Fancy still my sense in Lethe steep." 

Shakesp. T. Night, act iv. so. 1. iMKe. 

V. 22. " Here Ignorance in steel was arm'd, and there 
Cloath'd in a cowl, dissembled fast and prayV; 



142 gray's poems. 

Goddess ! awake, arise ! alas, my fears ! 2» 

Can powers immortal feel the force of years ? 
Not thus of old, with ensigns wide unfurl'd, 
She rode triumphant o'er the vanquish'd world ; 
Fierce nations own'd her unresisted might, 
And all was ignorance, and all was night. so 

Oh ! sacred age ! Oh ! times for ever lost ! 
(The schoolman's glory, and the churchman's 

boast.) 
For ever gone — yet still to fancy new, 
Her rapid wings the transient scene pursue, 
And bring the buried ages back to view. as 

High on her car, behold the grandam ride 
Like old Sesostris with barbaric pride ; 
* * * a team of harness'd monarchs bend 

^ ^ vie ■31? ^ y^ 



Against my sway her pious hand stretch'd out. 
And fenced with double fogs her idiot rout." 

Henry and Minerva. 
And so in the Duneiad, b. i. ver. 80: 

** All these, and more, the cloud-compelling queen 
Beholds thro' fogs that magnify the scene." 
V. 25. Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen ! " 

Milt. P. L. i. 330. Luke. 
V. 37. " Sesostris-like, such charioteers as these 

May drive six harnes.s'd monarchs if they please." 
Young. Love of Fame, Sat. v. 
«* High on his car, Sesostris struck my view, 
Whom sceptred slaves in golden harness drew." 

Pope. T. of Fame. Luke. 
And so S. Philips. Blenheim, v. 16: 

« As curst Sesostris, proud Egyptian king, 
That monarchs harness'd to his chariot yok'd.*' 



143 

THE ALLIANCE OF 

EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

A FRAGME^r.* 

[See Mason*s Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 99 ; and Musse Etonenses, 
vol. ii. p. 152.] 

ESSAY I. 

ILoTay d) 'yadt tuv yap uotSav 

OijTi 7ra eif Atdav ye rdv kKXeTiad wra (pvXa^slg. 

Theocritus, Id. I. 63. 

As sickly plants betray a niggard earth, 
Whose barren bosom starves her generous birth, 
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains, 
Their roots to feed, and fill their verdant veins : 
And as in climes, where winter holds his reign, 
The soil, though fertile, will not teem in vain, 
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise, 
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies : 

Var. V. 2. Barren] Flinty. MS. 



* In a note to his Roman history, Gibbon says: "Instead 
of compiling tables of chronology and natural history, why 
did not Mr. Gray apply the powers of his genius to finish the 
philosophic poem of which he has left such an exquisite speci- 
men'? " Vol. iii. p. 248. 4to. — Would it not have been more 
philosophical in Gibbon to have lamented the situation in 
which Gray was placed; which was not only not favourable to 
the cultivation of poetry, but which naturally directed hia 
thoughts to those learned inquirios, that formed the amuse- 
ment or business of all around him "? 



144 ghay's poems. 

So draw mankind in vain the vital airs, 
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares, ic 
That health and vigour to the soul impart, [heart: 
Spread the young thought, and warm the opening 
So fond instruction on the growing powers 
Of nature idly lavishes her stores. 
If equal justice with unclouded face is 

Smile not indulgent on the rising race, 
And scatter with a free, though frugal hand, 
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land : 
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there, 
To check their tender hopes with chilling fear, 20 
And blast the blooming promise of the year. 

This spacious animated scene survey. 
From where the rolling orb, that gives the day, 
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds 
To either pole, and Hfe's remotest bounds, 525 

How rude so e'er th' exterior form we find, 
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind, 
Alike to all, the kind, impartial heav'n 
The sparks of truth and happiness has giVn : 

Var. V. 19. But tyranny hasi Gloomy sway have. us. 
V. 21. Bloomingi Vernal. MS. 

V. 9. "Vitales auras carpis," Virg. ^n. i. 387. Luke. 

V. 14. «* And latnsh nature laughs and throws her stores 
around," Dryden. Virgil, vii. 76. Luke. 

V. 21. *' Destroy the promise of the youthful year.** 

Pope. Vert, and Pomona, 108. Luke. 

V. 36. " On mutual wants, build mutual happiness." 

Pope. Ep. iii. 112. 

V. 47. " Belliea nubes," Claudiani Laus Seren. 196. Luke, 

V. 48. So Claudian calls it. Bell. Getico, 641. " Cimbrica 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 145 

With sense to feel, with memory to retain, so 
Thej follow pleasure, and thej fly from pain ; 
Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws, 
The event presages, and explores the cause ; 
The soft returns of gratitude they know, 
By fraud elude, by force repel the foe ; 35 

While mutual wishes, mutual woes endear 
The social smile, the sympathetic tear. 

Say then, through ages by what fate confin'd 
To different climes seem different souls assign'd? 
Here measur'd laws and philosophic ease 40 

Fix, and improve the polish'd arts of peace ; 
There industry and gain their vigils keep, 
Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep : 
Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail ; 
There languid pleasure sighs in every gale. 4s 
Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar 
Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war ; 
And, where the deluge burst, with sweepy sway 
Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd 

away. 
As oft have issued, host impelling host, ^ 

The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast. 

tempestas." Pope. Horn. Od. 5, 303, "And next a wedge to 
drive with sweepy sway." See note on Bard, v. 76. 
V. 50. So Thomson. Liberty, iv. 803: 

" Hence many a people, fierce with freedom, rush'd 
From the rude iron regions of the North 
To Libyan deserts, swarm protruding swarm.** 
And Winter, 840 : 

" Drove martial Iiorde on horde, with dreadful sweep 
Resistless rushing o'er the enfeebled South.** 
V. 51. So Pope. Dunciad, iii. 89: 

** The North by myriads pours her mighty .'jons.** 



146 gray's poems. 

The prostrate south to the destroyer yields 
Her boasted titles, and her golden fields : 
With grim deUght the brood of winter view 
A brighter day, and heav'ns of azure hue ; 55 
Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose, 
And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows. 
Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod. 
Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,. 
While European freedom still withstands eo 

Th' encroaching tide that drowns her lessening 

lands ; 
And sees far off, with an indignant groan. 
Her native plains, and empires once her own ? 
Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame 
O'eipower the fire that animates our frame ; es 
As lampS; that shed at eve a cheerful ray, 
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day ? 
Need we the influence of the northern star 
To string our nerves and steel our hearts to war ? 
And, where the face of nature laughs around, 
Must sick'ning virtue fly the tainted ground ? 

Var. V. 55. Heavens] Skies. MS. 
V. 56. Scent] Catch. MS. 

*• The fair complexion of the blue-eyed warriors of Germany 
formed a singular contrast with the swarthy or olive hue, which 
is derived from the neighbourhood of the torrid zone." Gibbon. 
Rom. Hist. iii. ?j3'^. Ausonius gives them this distinguished 
feature: " Oculos coerula, flava comas," De Bissula. 17. p. 341. 
ed. ToUii. " Caerula quis stupuit Germani lumina," Juv. Sat. 
xiii. 164. 

V. 54. « Mirantur nemora et rorantes Sole racemos." Sta- 
tius. V. Plin. Nat. H. 1. xiii. c. ii. 1. 

V. 56. Milton. Arcades. 32, " And ye, ye breathing roses of 
the wood " Luke. 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 147 

Unmanly thought ! what seasons can control, 
What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul, 
Who, conscious of the source from whence she 

springs, 
By reason's light, on resolution's wings, ts 

Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes 
O'er Libya's deserts and through Zembla's snows ? 
She bids each slumb'ring energy awake. 
Another touch, another temper take, 
Suspends th' inferior laws that rule our clay : ac 
The stubborn elements confess her sway ; 
Their little wants, their low desires, refine. 
And raise the mortal to a height divine. 

Not but the human fabric from the birth 
Imbibes a flavour of its parent earth : 8d 

As various tracts enforce a various toil. 
The manners speak the idiom of their soil. 
An iron-race the mountain-cliffs maintain. 
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain : 
For where unwearied sinews must be found 90 
With side-long plough to quell the flinty ground, 
To turn the torrent's swift-descending flood, 



V. 57. Olaudian, in his poem De Bello Getico, ver. 504, 
makes the Gothic warriors mention the vines of Italy: " Quid 
palmitis uber Etrusoi," <fcc. " Et dulces rapuit de collibus 
uvas," Statii Silv. ii. ; and " Carpite de plenis pendentes viti- 
bus uvas," Ovid. Am. i. x. 55. " Pendet vindemia," Virg. 
Georg. ii. 89. 

V. 66. " And as these mighty tapers disappear, 

When day's bright lord ascends our hemisphere.** 
Dryd. Rel. Laici. Rogers. 

V 91. " And side-long lays the glebe." 

Thomson. Spring. Luke. 



148 gray's poems. 

To brave the savage rushing from the wood, 
What wonder if to patient valour train'd, 
They guard with spirit, what by strength they 
gain'd ? ss 

And while their rocky ramparts round they see, 
The rough abode of want and liberty, 
(As lawless force from confidence will grow) 
Insult the plenty of the vales below ? 99 

What wonder, in the sultry climes, that spread 
Where Nile redundant o'er his summer-bed 
From his broad bosom life and verdure flings, 
And broods o'er Egypt with his wat'ry wings, 
If with advent'rous oar and ready sail 
The dusky people drive before the gale ; los 



** Or drives his veumrous ploughshare to the steep, 
Or seeks the den, where snow-tracks mark the way. 
And drags the struggling savage into day." 

Goldsmith. Traveller. 
V. 101. " Gaudet aquis, quas ipsa vehit Niloque redundant.** 
Claudiani Nilus, ver. 7. " The broad redundant Nile.^* Young. 
Busiris, act v. sc. 1. 

V. 103. *' On the watery calm 

His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread." 

Milt. P. L. vii. 235 
*• O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wingy 
And hatches plenty for th' ensuing spring." 

Denham. Cooper's Hill. W. 
V. 105. " Cepheam hie Merden, fuscaque regna Ga,na,t,'* Pro- 
pert, iv. vi. 78. " Fuscis iEgyptus alumnis," ii. xxiv. 15. 
" Jam proprior tellusque natans -^gyptia Nilo; 
Lenius irriguis infuscat corpora campis." 

Manil iv. 727. 
And so Dryden's version of Virg. Georg. iv. 409, pointed out 
by Wakefield: 

*• And where in pomp the sun-burnt people ride 
On painted barges o'er the teeming tide.'* 
V. Martial. Ep. iv. 42. " Mareotide fusc^." " Spread the 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 149 

Or on frail floats to neighb'ring cities ride, 
That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide 

* *i^ jfc Jit jit 

Tfr ytf "JFr Tf? 



[The following couplet, whicli was intended to have been in- 
troduced in the poem on the Alliance of Education and 
Government, is much too beautiful to be lost. Mason, vol. 
iii. p. 114.] 



When love could teach a monarch to be wise,* 
And gospel-light first dawned from Bullen's eyes. 

Var. V. 106. Neighb^ing} Distant. MS. 



thin oar, and catch the driving gale.** Pope. Ess. on Man, iii. 
178. See Gifford's Juvenal. Sat. xv. 175. p. 460. 

V. 106. Lucan will explain the meaning of the frail float: 

. " Sic cum tenet omnia Nilus, 

Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymbapapyro." 

Pharsal. iv. 135. 

But Gilpin gives another explanation in his Western Tour, see 
p. 34. Add Brown's Travels in Africa, p. 66. 4to. Arbuth- 
not on Coins, p. 215. 4to. Denon. Trav. ii. p. 224. 

* The last couplet of this poem: '* When love could teach,** 
&c. has been imitated by H, Walpole, in an inscription on a 
Gothic column to Queen Katharine ; but with a loss of the 
metaphorical beauty in the original : 

*' From Katharine's wrongs a nation's bliss was spread. 
And Luther's light from Henry's lawless bed." 

** If (says Dryden) Conscience had any part in moving the 
king to sue for a divorce, she had taken a long nap of almost 
twenty years together before she was awakened; and, perhaps, 
had slept on till doomsday, if Anne Boleyn, or some other fair 
lady, had not given her a jog: so the satisfying of an inordi- 
nate passion cannot be denied to have had a great share at 
least in the production of that schism which led the very way 
to our pretended Reformation." Dryden. ed. Malone, vol. iii. 
p. 522. 



150 gray's poems. 



COMMENTARY. 



The author's subject being (as we bave seen) the necessary 
alliance between a good form of government and a good mode of 
education, in order to produce the happiness of mankind, the 
Poem opens with two similes; an uncommon kind of exordium: 
but which I suppose the poet intentionally chose, to intimate 
the analogical method he meant to pursue in his subsequent 
reasonings. 1st, He asserts that men without education are 
like sickly plants in a cold or barren soil (line 1 to 5, and 8 to 
12) ; and, 2dly, he compares them, when unblest with a just 
and well-regulated government, to plants that will not blos- 
som or bear fruit in an unkindly and inclement air (1. 5 to 9, 
and 1. 13 to 22). Having thus laid down the two propositions 
he means to prove, he begins by examining into the charac- 
teristics which (taking a general view of mankind) all men 
have in common one with another (1. 22 to 39) ; they covet plea- 
sure and avoid pain (1. 31); they feel gratitude for benefits 
(1. 34) ; they desire to avenge wrongs, which they effect either 
by force or camiiug (1. o5); they are linked to each other by 
their counnun feelings, and participate in sorrow and in joy 
(1. 3(3, 37). if then all the human species agree in so many 
moral particulars, whence arises the diversity of national cha- 
racters 1 This question the poet puts at line 38, and dilates 
upon to 1. G4. Why, says he, have some nations shewn a 
propensity to commerce and industi y ; others to war and ra- 
pine; others to ease and pleasure'? (1. 42 to 46). Why have the 
northern people overspread, in all ages, and prevailed over the 
southernl (1. 46 to 58). Why has Asia been, time out of 
mind, the seat of despotism, and Europe that of freedom! (1. 
59 to 64). Are we from these instances to imagine men neces- 
sarily enslaved bo the inconveniences of the climate where they 
were born'? (1. 64 to 72). Or are we not rather to suppose 
there is a natural strength in the human mind, that is able to 
vanquish and break through them'? (1. 72 to 84). It is con- 
fest, however, that men receive an early tincture from the 
situation they are placed in, and the climate which produces 
them (1. 84 to 88). Thus the inhabitants of the mountains, 
inured to labour and patience, are naturally trained to war (1. 
88 to 96) ; while those of the plain are more open to any attack, 
and softened by ease and plenty (1. 96 to 99). Again, the 
Egyptians, from the nature of their situation, might be the 
inventoi's of home navigation, from a necessity of keepimg up 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 151 

an intercourse between their towns during the inundation of 
the JSFile (1, 99 to ***). Those persons would naturally have 
the first turn to commerce, who inhabited a barren coast like 
the Tyrians, and were persecuted by some neighbouring tyrant; 
or were drove to take refuge on some shoals, like the Venetian 
and Hollander: their discovery of some rich island, in the in- 
fancy of the world, described. The Tartar hardened to war 
by his rigorous climate aud pastoral life, and by his disputes 
for water and herbage in a country without land-marks, as 
also by skirmishes between his rival clans, was consequently 
fitted to conquer his rich southern neighbours, whom ease and 
luxury had enervated: yet this is no proof that liberty and 
valour may not exist in southern climes, since the Syrians and 
Carthaginians gave noble instances of both; and the Arabians 
carried their conquests as far as the Tartars. Rome also (for 
many centuries) repulsed those very nations, which, when she 
grew weak, at length demolished f her extensive empire.**** 



f The reader will perceive that the Commentary goes fur- 
ther than the text. The reason for which is, that the Editor 
found it so on the paper from which he formed that comment; 
and as the thoughts seemed to be those which Gray would 
have next graced with the harmony of his numbers, he held 
it best to give them in continuation. There are other max- 
ims on different papers, all apparently relating to the same 
subject, which are too excellent to be lost; these, therefore, 
(as the place in which he meant to employ them cannot be 
ascertained) I shall subjoin to this note, under the title of de- 
tached Sentiments: 

" Man is a creature not capable of cultivating his mind but 
in society, and in that only where he is not a slave to the 
necessities of life. 

" Want is the mother of the inferior arts, but Ease that of 
the finer ; as eloquence, policy, morality, poetry, sculpture, 
painting, architecture, which are the improvements of the 
former. 

" The climate inclines some nations to contemplation and 
pleasure; others to hardship, action, and war; but not so as 
to incapacitate the former for courage and discipline, or the 
latter for civility, politeness, and works of genius. 

" It is the proper work of education and government united 
to redress the faults that arise from the soil and air. 

" The principal diift of education should be to make men 
think in the northern climates, and act in the southern. 

" The different steps and degrees of education may be com- 
pared to the artificer's operations upon marble; it is one thing 
to dig it out of the quarry, and another to square it, to give it 



152 ^ gray's poems. 

gloss and lustre, call forth every beautiful spot and vein, shape 
it into a column, or animate it into a statue. 

*' To a native of free and happy governments his country is 
always dear: 

* He loves his old hereditary trees. (Cowley.) 

while the subject of a tyrant has no country; he is therefore 
selfish and base-minded; he has no family, no posterity, no 
desire of fame ; or, if he has, of one that turns not on its pro- 
per object. 

"^ Any nation that wants public spirit, neglects education, 
ridicules the desire of fame, and even of vii'tue and reason, 
must be ill governed 

" Commerce changes entirely the fate and genius of nations, 
by communicating arts and opinions, circulating money, and in- 
troducing the materials of luxury; she first opens and polishes 
the mind, then corrupts and enervates both that and the body. 

" Those invasions of eifeminate southern nations by the war- 
like northern people, seem (in spite of all the terror, mischief, 
and ignorance which they brought with them) to be necessary 
evils; in order lo revive the spirit of mankind, softened and 
broken by the arts of commerce, to restore them to their native 
liberty and equality, and to give them again the power of 
supporting danger and hardship ; so a comet, with all the 
horrors that attend it as t passes through our system, brings 
a supply of warmth and light to the sun, and of moisture to 
the air. 

" The doctrine of Epicurus is ever ruinous to society; it 
had its rise when Greece was declining, and perhaps hastened 
its dissolutinn, as also lat of Rome; it is now propagated in 
France and in England, and seems likely to produce the same 
effect in both. 

" One principal characteristic of vice in the present age is 
the contempt of fame. 

" Many are t'ue uses of good fame to a generous mind: it 
extends our existence and example into future ages ; con- 
tinues and propagates virtue, which otherwise would be as 
short-lived as our frame; and prevents the prevalence of vice 
in a generation more corrupt even than our own. It is im- 
possible to Conquer that natural desire we have of being re- 
membered ; even criuiinal ainbition and avarice, the most 
selfish of all passions, would wish to leave a name behind 
them." 

Thus, with all the attention that a connoisseur in painting 
employs in collecting every slight outline as well as finished 
drawing which led to the completion of some capital picture, 
I have endeavoured to preserve every fragment of this great 
poetical design. It surely deserved this care, as it was one of 



EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT. 153 

the noblest wMch Mr. Gray ever attempted ; and also, as far 
as he carried it into execution, the most exquisitely finished. 
That he carried it no further is, and must ever be, a most 
eensible loss to the republic of letters. Mason. 



STANZAS TO MR. BENTLEY. 

A FRAGMENT. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 148.] 

These were in compliment to Bentley, who drew a set of 
designs for Gray's poems, particularly a head-piece to the 
Long Story. The original drawings are in the library at 
Strawberry Hill. See H. Walpole's Works, vol. ii. p. 447. 

In silent gaze the tuneful choir among, 

Half pleas'd, half blushing, let tlie Muse admire. 

While Bentley leads her sister-art along, 
And bids the pencil answer to the lyre. 

See, in their course, each transitory thought « 
Fix'd by his touch a lasting essence take ; 

Each dream, in fancy's airy colouring wrought. 
To local symmetry and life awake ! 



V. 3. So Pope. Bpist. to Jervas, 13: 

" Smit with the love of sister-arts we came; 
And met congenial, mingling flame with flame." 
V. Dryden to Kneller, " Our arts are sisters," ♦* Long time 
the sister-arts in iron sleep." 

V. 7. " Thence endless streams of fair ideas flow, 

Strike on the sketch, or in the picture glow." 

Pope. Epist. to Jervas, ver. 42. 
V. 8. " When life awakes and dawns at every line." Pope. 
Ep. to Jervas, v. 4. See also Kidd's note to Hor. A. P. v. 66, 
trom Plato. 



154 gray's poems. 

The tardy rhymes that us'd to linger on, 
To censure col Jj and negligent of fame, 

In swifter measures animated run, 

And catch a lustre from his genuine flame. 

Ah ! could they catch his strength, his easy grace. 
His quick creation, his unerring line ; 

The energy of Pope they might efface, w 

And Dryden's harmony submit to mine. 

But not to one in this benighted age 

Is that diviner inspiration giv'n. 
That burns in Shakespeare's or in Milton's page, 

The pomp and prodigality of heav'n. 20 

As when conspiring in the diamond's blaze. 
The meaner gems that singly charm the sight, 

Together dart their intermingled rays. 
And dazzle with a luxury of light. 

Enough for me, if to some feeling breast 25 

My lines a secret sympathy ' impart ; ' 

And as their pleasing influence 'flows confest,' 
A sigh of soft reflection ' heaves the heart.' f 



V. 20. " Heaven, that bat once wa,s prodigal before. 

To Shakspear gave as much, she could not give him 
more." Dry den to Congreve. Luke 

f The words within the inverted commas were supplied by 
Mason, a corner of the old manuscript copy being torn : with all 
due respect to his memory, I do not ctmsider that he has been 
successful in the selection of the few words which he has added 



155 



SKETCH OF HIS OWN CHARACTER. 

WRITTEN IN 1761, AND FOUND IN ONE OF HIS POCKET- 
BOOKS. 

Poo poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune, 
He had not the method of making a fortune : 
Could love, and could hate, so was thought some- 
what odd ; 
No very great wit, he believed in a God : 
A post or a pension he did not desire, s 

But left church and state to Charles Townshend 
and Squire. 



to supply the imperfect lines: my own opinion is, that Gray 
had in his mind Dryden's Epistle to Kneller, from which ho 
partly took his expressions: under the shelter of that sup- 
position, I shall venture to give another reading: 

" Enough for me, if to some feeling breast 
My lines a secret sympathy ' convey; ' 
And as their pleasing influence ' is exprest,' 
A sigh of soft reflection ' dies away.' 

V. 1. This is similar to a passage in one of Swift's letters 
to Gay, speaking of poets : " 1 have been considering why 
poets have such ill success in making their court. They are 
too libertine to haunt ante-chambers, too poor to bribe porters, 
and too proud to cringe to second-hand favourites in a great 
family." See Pope. Works, xi. 3G. ed. Warton. 

V. 4. "I pay my debts, believe, and say my prayers." 

Pope. Prol. to Satires, ver. 268. 

V. 6. S<iuirf] At that time Fellow of St. John's College, 
Cambridge, and afterwards Bishop of St. David's. Dr. S. 
Squire died ITlJC, sec NichoU. Poeuis, vol. vii. p. 2131. Bishop 
Warburton one day met Dean Tucker, who said that he hoped 
his Lordship liked his situation at Gloucester; on which the 
sarcastic Bishop replied, that never bishopric was so bedeanedy 
for that his predecussur Dr. Squire had made /elig'^n \is trade, 



156 gray's poems. 



AMATORY LINES. 



The following lines by Gray first appeared in Warton's * edi- 
tion of Pope, vol. i. p. 285. 

With beauty, with pleasure surrounded, to lan- 
guish — 

To weep without knowing the cause of my anguish: 

To start from short slumbers, and wish for the 
morning — 

To close my dull eyes when I see it returning ; 

Sighs sudden and frequent, looks ever dejected — 

Words that steal from my tongue, by no meaning 
connected ! 

Ah ! say, fellow-swains, how these symptoms be- 
fell me ? 

They smile, but reply not — Sure Delia will tell me ! 



and that he Tr. Tucker bad made trade his religion. See 
Cradock. Mem. iv. ii35. ^ 

Perhaps these lines of Gray gave a hint to Goldsmith for 
his character of Burke in the ' Retaliation : ' 

- 'Tho' equal to all things, for all things unfit, 
Too nice for a statesman, too proud for a wit; 
For a patriot too cool, for a drudge disobedient. 
And too fond of the right to pursue the expedient.* 

* As Dr. Warton has here favoured us with some manu- 
script lines by Gray, it will be a species of poetical justice to 
give the reader some lines from a manuscript of Dr. Warton, 
which he intended to insert in his Ode to Fancy, and which 
are placed within the inverted commas: 

In converse while methinks I rove 

With Spenser through a fairy grove, 

' Or seem by powerful Dante led 

To the dark chambers of the dead. 



157 



SONG.* 

Thyrsis, when we parted, swore 
Ere the spring he would return — 

Ah ! what means yon violet flower, 
And the bud that decks the thorn ? 

'Twas the lark that upward sprung ! . 

'Twas the nightingale that sung ! 

Var. V. 1. Thyrsis, when we parted'\ In Mr. Park's edition, 
for *' when we parted,'"' it is printed " when he left me." And, 
for ** Ere the spring," " In the spring." 

Var. V. 3. Yon violet flower^ In Mr. Park's edition, **the 
opening flower. '^ 
V. 6. *Twas the lark'\ In Mr. Park's edition, this and 
the following line are transposed. 

Or to the ^^~ towers where pine 
The sons of famish 'd Ugoline; 
Or by the Tuscan wizard's power 
Am wafted to Alcina's bower * 
Till suddenly, &o. 
And after the couplet — 

On which thou lov'st to sit at eve, 
Musing o'er thy darling's grave — 

Add, from the MS.— 

' To whom came trooping at thy call 
Thy spirits from their airy hall. 
From sea and earth, from heaven and hell 
Stern Hecate, and sweet Ariel.' 
* Written at the request of Miss Speed, to an old air of 
Geminiani: — the thought from the French. This and the 
preceding Poem were presented by Miss Speed, then Countess 
de Viry, to the Eev. Mr. Leman of Suffolk, while on a visit 
at her castle in Savoy, where she died in 1783. Admiral Sir 
T. Duckworth, whose father was vicar of Stoke from 1766 to 
1794, remembers Gray and Miss Speed at that place. Gray 
left Stoke about the year 1758, on the death of his aunt Mrs. 
Rogers : when his acquaintance with Miss Speed probably 
closed. 



158 gray's poems. 

Idle notes ! untimely green ! 

Why this unavailing haste ? 
Western gales and skies serene 

Speak not always winter past. lo 

Cease, my doubts, my fears to move, 
Spare the honour of my love. 

[This Song is in this edition printed from the copy as it 
appears in H. Walpole's Letters to the Countess of Ailesbury. 
See his Works, vol. v. p. 561.] 

Vax. V. 8. Why this] In Mr. Park's edition, " why such.** 
V. 9. Western, &c.] In Mr. Park's edition, these lines 
are printed thus : 
*' Gentle gales and sky serene 
Prove not always winrer past." 



159 



TOPHET. 



AN EPIGRAM. 




Thus Tophet look'd ; so grinn'd the brawling fiend, 
Whilst frighted prelates bow'd, and call'd him 
friend. 



160 gkay's poems. 

Our motlier-churcli, witli half-averted sight, 
Blush'd as she bless'd her grisly proselyte ; 
Hosannas rung thro' hell's tremendous borders, 
And Satan's self had thoughts of taking orders.* 



* The Rev. Henry Etough, of Cambridge Uniyersity, the 
person satirized, was as remarkable for the eccentricities of his 
character, as for his personal appearance. Mr. Tyson, of 
Bene't College, made an etching of his head, and presented 
it to Gray, who embellished it with the above lines. Informa- 
tion respecting Mr. Etough, (who was rector of Therfield, 
Herts, and of Colmworth, Bedfordshire, and patronized by Sir 
Robert Walpole,) may be found in the Gentleman's Magaz. 
vol. Ivi. p. 25. 281 ; and in Nichols's Literary Anecdotes of 
the xviiith Century, vol. viii. p. 261, and Brydges' Restituta, 
vol. iv. p. 246, and Polwhele's Recollect, i. 212. " Etough 
was originally a Jew, but renounced his religion for the sake 
of a valuable living. To understand the second line, it is ne- 
cessary to inform you, that Tophet kept the conscience of the 
minister." See Neville. Imit. of Horace, p 59. " The slan- 
derous pests, the Etoughs of the age." See an account of Dr. 
Etough in Coxe's Life of Sir R. Walpole, vol. i. p. xxvi. 
** Etough was a man of great research and eager curiosity, 
replete with prejudice, but idolizing Sir R. Walpole, &o *' 



161 



IMPROMPTU, 

SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, IN 1766, OF THE 8EA1 *ND 

RUINS OF A DECEASED NOBLEMAN, AT 

K.INGSGATE, KENT.* 

[Written at Denton in the spring of 1766. See Nichols' Se- 
lect Poems, vol. vii. p. 350, and "W. S Landori Poemata, 
p. 196.] 

Old, and abandon'd by each venal friend, 
Here H d form'd the pious resolution 

To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend 
A broken character and constitution. 

On this congenial spot he iix'd his choice ; s 

Earl Goodwin trembled for his neighbouring 
sand; 
Here sea-gulls scream, and cormorants rejoice, 
And mariners, though shipwreck'd, dread to 
land. 

Here reign the blustering North and blighting 
East, 
No tree is heard to whisper, bird to sing ; lo 

Var. V. 2. Fomt'd'^ Took. ms. 
V. 3. A] Some. ms. 
V. 9. Dread] Fear. Nichols. 



* Dallaway, in his Anecdotes of the Arts, p. 385, says, that 
this house was built by Lord Holland as a correct imitation 
of Cicero's Formian villa, at Baise, under the superintendence 
of Sir Thomas Wynne, Bart, afterwards Lord Newborough. 
See Gent. Mag. vol. Ixxvii. p. 1116. 



162 gray's poems. 

Yet Nature could not furnish out the feast, 
Art he invokes new horrors still to bring. 

Here mouldering fanes and battlements arise, 
Turrets and arches nodding to their fall, 

Unpeopled monast'ries delude our eyes, i& 

And mimic desolation covers all. 

" Ah ! " said the sighing peer, " had B — ^te been 
true. 

Nor M — 's, R — 's, B — 's friendship vain. 
Far better scenes than these had blest our view, 

And realiz'd the beauties which we feign : ao 

" Purg'd by the sword, and purified by fire, 
Then had we seen proud London's hated walls ; 

Owls would have hooted in St. Peter's choir. 
And foxes stunk and litter'd in St. Paul's." 

Var. V. 11. Could'l Cannot, ms. 

V. 12. Horrorsi Terrors. Nich. 

V. 13. Here] Now. MS. 

V. 14. Turrets and arches} Arches and turrets. MS. 

V. 15. Monast^ies, our] Palaces, his. MS. 

V. 17. B—te] Bute. ms. 

V. 18. M—'s, R—'s, B—'s] Shelburne's, Rigby's, Cal- 

craft's. MS. 
Nor C — 's nor B — d's promises been vain. Nich. 
V. 19. Better] Other, ms. Grac'd our view. N. 
v. 20. Beauties which] Ruins that. MS. Horrors 

which. N. 
V. 21. Purified] Beautified. MS. 
V. 23. Would] Might. MS. Should. N. 



V. 18. These initials stand for " Mungo's, Rigby's, Brad- 
shaw's. See Heroic Epistle, v. 95; and Verses by Lord Hol- 
land in returning from Italy, 1767, in Asylum for Fug. Pieces, 
ii. p. 10: 



163 
THE CANDIDATE: 

OR, THE CAMBRIDGE COURTSHIP.* 

See character of Lord Sandwich in " Chrysal." See Scott's 
Lives of the Novelists, 1. p. 169 ; Davies. Biog, and Lit. 
Anecdotes; Churchill's Verses on Lord Sandwich, in Candi- 
date and Duellist; "From his youth upwards," Ac. Cra- 
dock'slVIemoirs, vol. i. p. 117. 148. vol. iv. p. 163. 223; Miss 
Hawkins's Anecdotes, p. 239 ; Bell's Fugitive Poetry, v. 
xvi. p. 93. 172 ; Wilkes. Letters, i. p. 211. ii. p. 220 ; 
Walpole. Letters to Lord Hertford, p. 51 — 65. 102. by which 
it appears that Warburton had dedicated his Sermons to 
Lord Sandwich, but expunged his name for Pitt's. I have 
seen " A letter of advice from Alma Mater to her beloved 
son. Jemmy Twitcher, 1764."] 

When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his 

face, 
With a lick of court whitewash, and pious grimace, 
A wooing he went, where three sisters of old 
In harmless society guttle and scold. 4 

" Lord ! sister," says Physic to Law, " I declare. 
Such a sheep-biting look, such a pick-pocket air ! 
Not I for the Lidies : — you know I'm no prude, — ■ 
But his nose is a shame, — and his eyes are so 
lewd! 



*' But, Rigby, what did I for thee endure. 
Thy serpent's tooth admitted of no lure: 
Shelburne and Calcraft ! ? the holy band 
See, see, with Gower caballing where they stand," &c. 

* These verses were written a short time previous to the 
election of a high-steward of the University of Cambridge, for 
which ofBce the noble lord alluded to (Lord Sandwich) made 
an active canvass. 

V. 8. Nose'] In all editions printed by mistake " Name.** 



164 gray's poems. 

Then he shambles and straddles so odHly — I 

fear — 
No — at our time of life 'twould be silly, my dear.'* 
"I don't know," says Law, "but methinks for 

his look, 11 

'Tis just like the picture in Rochester's book ; 
Then his character, Phyzzy, — his morals — his 

hfe — 
When she died, I can't tell, but he once had a wife. 
They say he's no Christian, loves drinking and 



w g^ 



15 



And all the town rings of his swearing and roaring ! 
His lying and filching, and Newgate-bird tricks ; — 
Not I — for a coronet, chariot and six." 

Divinity heard, between waking and dozing, 
Her sisters denying, and Jemmy proposing : so 
From table she rose, and with bumper in hand, 
She strok'd up her belly, and strok'd down her 
band — [}^E^ 

" What a pother is here about wenching and roar- 
Why, David lov'd catches, and Solomon w — g : 
Did not Israel filch from th' Egyptians of old 25 
Their jewels of silver and jewels of gold ? 
The prophet of Bethel, we read, told a lie : 
He drinks — so did Noah : — he swears — so do I: 



V. 9. " That babe of grace 

Who ne'er before at sermon show'd his face. 

See Jemmy Twitcher shambles." 

Heroic Epistle, 125, note. 
See Hard. Obs. on this word, in Cradock. Memoirs, vol. i. 117; 
and Anecdote, p. 164. 
V. 16. But see Cradock. Memoirs, vol. iv. 166. 



EXTRACTS. 165 

To reject him for such peccadillos, were odd ,- 
Beside8, he repents — for he talks about G** — 

[ To Jemmy] 
* Never hang down your head, you poor penitent 

elf, 
Come buss me — I'll be Mrs. Twitcher myself.'" 

*2bL ^e. j^ ^&, He. 

vf* T» ^ " n» 

[The concluding couplet is too gross to give. Ed.] 

*• From recollection I am sure Lord Sandwich was aware of 
(xray; for about the time he offered himself as high-steward, 
contrary to his usual maxim of not seeing an enemy on public 
occasions, he once said to me, ' I have my private reasons for 
knowing his absolute inveteracy.' " Cradock. iv. 223. 



EXTRACTS. 

PROPERTIUS, LIB. III. ELEG. V. v. 19. 
** Me juvat in prim^ eoluisse Helicona juvent&,'* &c. 

IMITATED. 

Long as of youth the joyous hours remain, 
Me may Castalia's sweet recess detain. 
Fast by the umbrageous vale lull'd to repose, 
Where Aganippe warbles as it flows ; 4 

Or roused by sprightly sounds from out the trance, 
I'd in the ring knit hands, and join the Muses' 

dance. 
Give me to send the laughing bowl around. 
My soul in Bacchus' pleasing fetters bound ; 
Let on this head unfading flowers reside. 
There bloom the vernal rose's earliest pride ; '" 



166 GRAY*3 POEMS. 

And when, our flames commission'd to destroy, 
Age step 'twixt Love and me, and intercept the 

When my changed head these locks no more shall 
And all its jetty honours turn to snow ; [know, 
Then let me rightly spell of Nature's ways j is 
To Providence, to Him my thoughts I'd raise. 
Who taught this vast machine its steadfast laws, 
That first, eternal, universal cause ; 
Search to what regions yonder star retires. 
That monthly waning hides her paly fires, si) 

And whence, anew revived, with silver light 
Relumes her crescent orb to cheer the dreary 

night : 
How rising winds the face of ocean sweep. 
Where lie the eternal fountains of the deep. 
And whence the cloudy magazines maintain 25 
Their wintry war, or pour the autumnal rain ; 
How flames perhaps, with dire confusion hurl'd, 
Shall sink this beauteous fabric of the world ; 
What colours paint the vivid arch of Jove ; 
What wondrous force the solid earth can move, so 
When Pindus' self approaching ruin dreads. 
Shakes all his pines, and bows his hundred heads; 
Why does yon orb, so exquisitely bright, 
Obscure his radiance in a short-liv'd night ; 
Whence the Seven Sisters' congregated fires, 86 
And what Bootes' lazy vraggon tires ; 
How the rude surge *its sandy bounds control; 
Who measured out the year, and bade the sea- 
sons roll : 



EXTRACTS. 167 

If realms beneath those fabled torments know, 

Pangs without respite, fires that ever glow, 40 

Earth's monster brood stretch'd on their iron bed. 

The hissing terrors round Alecto's head, 

Scarce to nine acres Tityus' bulk confined, 

The triple dog that scares the shadowy kind, 

All angry heaven inflicts, or hell can feel, « 

The pendent rock, Ixion's whirling wheel, 

Famine at feasts, or thirst amid the stream ; 

Or are our fears the enthusiast's empty dream. 

And all the scenes, that hurt the grave's repose, 

But pictured horror and poetic woes. so 

These soft inglorious joys my hours engage; 

Be love my youth's pursuit, and science crown 

my age. 

* 1738. ^t. 22. 



PROPERTIUS, LIB. II. ELEG. I. v. 17. 
*'Quod mihi si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent," &c 

Yet would the tyrant Love permit me raise 
My feeble voice, to sound the victor's praise. 
To paint the hero's toil, the ranks of war. 
The laurell'd triumph, and the sculptured car ; 
No giant race, no tumult of the skies, fi 

No mountain-structures in my verse should rise. 
Nor tale of Thebes, nor Ilium thSre should be. 
Nor how the Persian trod the indignant sea ; 
Not Marius' Cimbrian wreaths would I relate, 
Nor lofty Carthage struggling with her fate. 10 



168 gray's poems. 

Here should Augustus great in arms appear, 
And thou, Msecenas, be my second care ;, 
Here Mutina from flames and famine free, 
And there the ensanguined wave of Sicilj, 
And scepter'd Alexandria's captive shore, is 

And sad Philippi, red with Roman gore : 
Then, while the vaulted skies loud ios rend, 
In golden chains should loaded monarchs bend. 
And hoary Nile with pensive aspect seem 
To mourn the glories of his sevenfold stream, 20 
While prows, that late in fierce encounter met, 
Move through the sacred way and vainly threat. 
Thee too the Muse should consecrate to fame, 
And with her garlands weave thy ever-faithful 
name. 

But nor Callimachus' enervate strain ^ 

May tell of Jove, and Phlegra's blasted plain ; 
Nor I with unaccustomed vigour trace 
Back to its source divine the Julian race. 
Sailors to tell of winds and seas delight, 
The shepherd of his flocks, the soldier of the fight, 
A milder warfare I in verse display ; si 

Each in his proper art should waste the day : 
Nor thou my gentle calling disapprove. 
To die is glorious in the bed of Love. 

Happy the youth, and not unknown to fame. 
Whose heart has never felt a second flame. 36 
Oh, might that» envied happiness be mine ! 
To Cynthia all my wishes I confine ; 
Or if, alas ! it be my fate to try 
Another love, the quicker let me die: « 



EXTRACTS. 169 

But slie, the mistress of my faithful breast, 
Has oft the charms of constancj confest, 
Condemns her fickle sex's fond mistake, 
And hates the tale of Troy for Helen's sake. 
Me from myself the soft enchantress stole ; « 
Ah ! let her ever my desires control. 
Or if I fall the victim of her scorn. 
From her loved door may my pale corse be borne. 
The power of herbs can otlier harms remove, 
And find a cure for every ill, but love. w 

The Lemnian's hurt Machaon could repair, 
Heal the slow chief, and send again to war ; 
To Chiron Phoenix owed his long-lost sight, 
And Phoebus' son recall'd Androgeon to the light. 
Here arts are vain, e'en magic here must fail, ss 
The powerful mixture and the midnight spell; 
The hand that can my captive heart release. 
And to this bosom give its wonted peace, 
]May the long thirst of Tantalus allay. 
Or drive the infernal vulture from his prey. w 
For ills unseen what remedy is found ? 
Or who can probe the undiscover'd wound? 
The bed avails not, nor the leech's care. 
Nor changing skies can hurt, nor sultry air. 
'Tis hard th' elusive symptoms to explore : as 
To-day the lover walks, to-morrow is no more ; 
A train of mourning friends attend his pall, 
And wonder at the sudden funeral. 

When then the fates that breath they gave shall 
claim, 
And the short marble but preserve a name, 7o 

M 



170 «ray's poems. 

A little verse my all that shall remain ; 

Thy passing courser's slacken'd speed restrain ; 

(Thou envied honour of thy poet's days, 

Of all our youth the ambition and the praise ! ) 

Then to my quiet urn awhile draw near, 75 

And say, while o'er that place you drop the tear, 

Love and the fair were of his youth the pride ; 

He lived, while she was kind ; and when she 

frown'd, he died. 

April, 1742. ^t. 26. 



TASSO GERUS. LIB. CANT. XIV. ST. 32. 

**Preser commiato, e si *1 desio gli sprona,** &c. 

Dismiss'd at length, they break through all delay 
To tempt the dangers of the doubtful way ; 
And first to Ascalon their steps they bend, 
Whose walls along the neighbouring sea extend, 
Nor yet in prospect rose the distant shore ; 15 
Scarce the hoarse waves from far were heard to 

roar. 
When thwart the road a river roll'd its flood 
Tempestuous, and all further course withstood; 
The torrent stream his ancient bounds disdains, 
Swoll'n with new foi'ce, and late-descending rains. 
Irresolute they stand ; when lo, appears 
The wondrous Sage: vigorous he seem'd in years, 
Awful his mien, low as his feet there flows 
A vestment unadoniM. though white as new-fall'n 

snows ; 



EXTRACTS 171 

Against the stream the waves secure he trod, i« 
His head a chaplet bore, his hand a rod. 

As on the Rhine, when Boreas' fury reigns, 
And winter binds the floods in icy chains. 
Swift shoots the village-maid in rustic play 
Smooth, without step, adown the shining way, 20 
Fearless in long excursion loves to glide, 
And sports and wantons o'er the frozen tide. 

So mov'd the Seer, but on no harden'd plain ; 
The river boil'd beneath, and rush'd toward the 

main. 
"Where fix'd in wonder stood the warlike pair, a 
His course he turn'd, and thus relieved their care: 

" Vast, oh my friends, and difficult the toil 
To seek your hero in a distant soil ! 
No common helps, no common guide ye need, 
Art it requires, and more than winged speed, so 
What length of sea remains, what various lands, 
Oceans unknown, inhospitable sands ! 
For adverse fate tlie captive chief has hurl'd 
Beyond the confines of our narrow world : 
Great things and full of wonder in your ears as 
I shall unfold ; but first dismiss your fears ; 
Nor doubt with me to tread the downward road 
That to the grotto leads, my dark abode." 

Scarce had he said, before the warriors' eyes 
When mountain-high the waves disparted rise ; 40 
The flood on either hand its billows rears, 
And in the midst a spacious arch appears. 
Their hands he seized, and down the steep he led 
Beneath the obedient river's inmost bed ; 



172 gray's poems. 

The watery glimmerings of a fainter day « 

Discover'd half, and half conceal'd their way ; 
As when athwart the dusky woods by night 
The uncertain crescent gleams a sickly light. 
Through subterraneous passages they went, 
Earth's inmost cells, and caves of deep descent ; so 
Of many a flood they view'd the secret source, 
The birth of rivers rising to their course, 
Whate'er with copious train its channel fills. 
Floats into lakes, and bubbles into rills ; 
The Po was there to see, Danubius' bed, " bs 
Euphrates' fount, and Nile's mysterious head. 
Further they pass, where ripening minerals flow, 
And embryon metals undigested glow. 
Sulphureous veins and living silver shine. 
Which soon the parent sun's warm powers refine, 
In one rich mass unite the precious store, 
The parts combine and harden into ore : 
Here gems break through the night with glitter- 
ing beam. 
And paint the margin of the costly stream. 
All stones of lustre shoot their vivid ray, es 

And mix attemper'd in a various day ; 
Here the soft emerald smiles of verdant hue. 
And rubies flame, with sapphire's heavenly blue, 
The diamond there attracts the wondrous sight, 
Proud of its thousand dyes and luxury of light. 

1738. Mi. 22. 



173 



P O E M A T A. 



HYMENEAL 

ON THE MARRIAGE OP HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCB 
OP WALES.* 

Ignar^ nostrum mentes, et inertia corda, 
Dum curas regum, et sortem miseramur iniquam, 
Quae solio affixit, vetuitque calescere flamma 
Dulci, qu£e dono divum, gratissima serpit 4 

Viscera per, mollesque animis lene implicat asstus ; 
Nee teneros sensus, Veneris nee praemia norunt, 
Eloquiumve oculi, aut facunda silentia linguae : 
Scilicet ignorant lacrymas, saevosque dolores, 
Dura rudimenta, et violentse exordia flamma? ; 



* Printed in the Cambridge Collection, 1736, fol. In this 
Collection is also a Latin Copy of Hendecasyllables, by Horace 
Walpole; a short Copy by Thomas Ash ton, the friend of Wal- 
pole, &c. ; and there are some Greek verses by Richard 
Dawes, the author of < Miscellanea Critica.' 

V. 1. " Heu, vatum ignarge mentes ! " Virg. ^n. iv. 65. 
" Teucrum mirantur inertia corda," ^n. ix. 55. 

V. 2. " Sortemque animo miseratus iniquam," Mn. vi. 332. 

V. 4. " Dono divum gratissima serpit," ^n. ii. 269. 

V. 6. " Nee dulces natos. Veneris nee praemia norisT " ^n. 
iv. 33. 

V. 7. " Vide Hor. Od. iv. i. 35. And Pope. Homer, b. xiv. 
ver. 252: 

" Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes." 
And Fairfax. Tasso, iv. 85: 

" Dumb eloquence, persuading more than speech." 



174 gray's poems. 

Scilicet ignorant, quae flumine tinxit aniaro m 
Tela Venus, cjecique armamentaria Divi, 
Irasque, insidiasque, et taciturn suh pectore vulnus; 
Namque sub ingressu, primoque in limine Amoris 
Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae ; 
Intus habent dulces Risus, et Gratia sedem, is 
Et roseis resupina toris, roseo ore Voluptas : 
Regibus hue faciles aditus ; communia spernunt 
Ostia, jamque expers duris custodibus istis 
Panditur accessus, penetraliaque intima Templi. 

Tuque Oh! Angliacis, Princeps, spes optima 
regnis, 20 

Ne tantum, ne finge metum : quid imagine captus 
Haeres, et mentem pictura pascis inani ? 
Umbram miraris : nee longum tempus, et ipsa 
Ibit in amplexus, thalamosque ornabit ovantes. 
Ille tamen tabulis inhians longum haurit amo- 
rem, 26 

Affatu fruitur tacito, auscultatque tacentem 
Immemor artificis calami, risumque, ruboremque 

V. 10. "Bis flumine corpora tingat,''^ Ovid. Met. xii. 413, 

V. 11. " Quidquid habent telorum armamentaria coeli,"' 
Juv. Sat. xiii. 83. 

V. 12. This line, which is unmetrical, is so printed in the 
Cambridge Collection ; and in Park's edition, without remark. 
The fault is probably in the author, and not in the printer; 
as the line is composed of two hemistiehs of Virgil; ^En. xii. 
336, "Irgeqvie, Insidiasque, Dei comitatus, aguntur; " and 
^n. iv. 67, " Taciturn vivit sub pectore vulnus." Or perhaps 
a line is omitted, which should intervene. 

V. 14. This line is from Virgil, ^n. vi. 274: 
" Luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curse." 

v. 18 " Quos dura premit custodia matrum," Hor. Ep. i. 
i. 22. 



MARRIAGE OF PRINCE OF WALES. 175 

Aspicit in fucis, pictaeque in virginis ore : as 

Tanta Venus potuit ; tantus tenet error amantes. 

JSTascere, magna Dies, qua sese Augusta Bri- 
tanno 
Committat Pelago, patriamque relinquat amoenam; 
Cujus in adventum jam nunc tria regna secundos 
Attolli in plausus, dulcique accensa furore 
Incipiunt agitare modos, et carmina dicunt : 
Ipse animo sed enim juvenis comitatur euntem 35 
Explorat ventos, atque auribus aera captat, 
Atque auras, atque astra vocat crudelia ; pectus 
Intentum exultat, surgitque arrecta cupido ; 
Incusat spes £egra fretum, solitoque videtur 
Latior effundi pontus, fluctusque morantes. 40 

[tanno 

Nascere, Lux major, qua sese Augusta Bri- 
Committat juveni totam, propriamque dicabit ; 



V. 22. " Atque animum pictura pascit inani," Mn. i. 464. 

V. 23. " Nee longum tempus et ingens," &c. Virg. Georg. 
ii. 80. 

V. 30. " Magnus ab integro saeelorum nascitur ordo," Virg. 
Eel. iv. 5. 

V. 31. " Commisit pelago ratein," Hor. Od; i. iii. 11 

V. 33. " Subitoque accensa furore," ^n. iv. 697. 

V. 35. ** Virum qui sic comitatur euntem'? " ^n. vi. 863. 

V. 36. This line is from Virgil, ^n. iii. 514: 

'* Explorat ventos, atque auribus aera captat." 

V. 37. From Virg. Georg. iv. 495 : " Crudelia retro Fata 
vocant.*' Ma. v. 138: " Laudumque arrecta cupido." 

V. 41. " Nascere, pragque diem veniens age, Lucifer, al- 
mum," Virg. Eel. viii. 118. 

V. 42. " Connubio jungara stabili, propriamque dicabo," 
Virg. Mn. i. 73. 



176 gray's poems. 

At citius (precor) Oh ! cedas melioribus astris ; 
Nox finem pompae, finemque imponere curis 
Possit, et in thalamos furtim deducere nuptam ; 4s 
Sufficiat requiemque viris, et amantibus umbras : 
Adsit Hymen, et subridens cum matre Cupido 
Accedant, sternantque toros, ignemque ministrent ; 
Ilicet baud pictse incandescit imagine formse 
Ulterius juvenis, verumque agnoscit amorem. so 

Sculptile sicut ebur, faciemque arsisse venustam 
Pygmaliona canunt : ante banc suspiria ducit, 
Alloquiturque amens, flammamque et vulnera nar- 

rat ; 
Implorata Venus jussit cum vivere signum, 64 
Foemineam inspirans animam; quae gaudia sur- 

gunt, 
Audiit ut primae nascentia murmura linguae, 
Luctari in vitam, et paulatim volvere ocellos 



V. 44. So in Gray's Epistle from Sophonisba: 
** Pompae finis erat. Tot^ vix nocte quievi." 

V. 46. " On the position of the ' que/ see Burman. Virgil, 
^n. vi. 395. 

V. 47. " Pro Venus, et tenera volucer cum matre Cupido,'* 
Ov. Met. ix, 481. 

V. 50. " Veros exponit amores," Ovid. Met x. 439. "Ve- 
res parce profitemur amores," Ovid. Art. Am. ii. 639. 

V. 51 is from Ovid. Met. x. 247: 
" Interea niveum mira feliciter arte 
Sculpit ebur; fonnamque dedit, qua fcemina nasci 
Nulla potest: operisque sui concepit amorem: 
Virginis est verse facies, quam vivere credas; 
Et, si non obstet reverentia, velle moveri: 
Ars adeo latet arte sua. Miratur, et haurit 
Pectore Pygmalion simulati corporis ignes." 

V. 56. " Sed parvae murmura lingu£e," Ov. .Met. xii. 49. 



MARRIAGE OK PRINCE OF WALES. 177 

Sedulus, aspexitque nova splendescere flamma ; 
Corripit amplexu vivam, jamque oscula jungit 
Acria confestim, recipitque rapitque ; prioris eo 
Lnmemor ardoris, Nymphaeque oblitus eburneae. 

Tho. Gray, Pet. Coll. 



LUNA HABITABILIS.* 

DuM Nox rorantes, non incomitata per auras 
Urget equos, tacitoque inducit sidera lapsu ; 
Ultima, sed nuUi soror inficianda sororum, 
Hue milii, Musa ; tibi patet alti janua cceli, 
Astra vides, nee te numeri, nee nomina fallunt. s 
Hue mihi, Diva veni ; dulce est per aperta serena 
Vere frui liquido, campoque errare silenti ; 



V. 59. " Excipis amplexu, feliciaque oscula jungis," Ov. 
Ep. xviii. 101. And Met. x. 256: "Oscula dat, reddique 
putat; loquiturque tenetque." 

V. 61. " Sit conjux opto, (non ausus, eburnea virgo, 

Dicere Pygmalion,) similis mea, dixit eburneae." 

Ov. Met. X. 275. 
* This copy of verses was written by desire of the College,' 
in 1737. It has never been printed, but in the " Musae Eto- 
nenses," vol. ii. p. 107; and has not there the name of the 
author. It is referred to in Mason's Memoirs; a copy of 
verses on the subject, " Planetae sunt habitabiles," is in the 
same work. See also in V. Bourne's Poems, p. 261, 4to. 

V. 2. " Tacito lapsu," Claudian, xxii 430. Andxxxi. 40; 
" Tacito defluxit fistula Iwpsu." 
V. 4. " Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis.'* 

Virg. Mn. vi 127. 

V. 7. " Ver inde serenum 

Protinus, et liquidi clementior aura favoni." 

Claudian, i. 272. 



178 gkat's poems. 

Vere frui dulce est ; modo tu dignata petentem 
Sis comes, et mecum gelida spatiere sub umbra. 
Scilicet bos orbes, cceli haec decora alta putandum 
est, 10 

Noctis opes, nobis tantum lucere; virumque 
Ostentari oculis, nostras laquearia terras, 
Ingentes scenas, vastique aulsea tbeatri ? 
Oh ! quis me pennis sethrae super ardua sistet 
Mirantem, propiusque dabit convexa tueri ; is 
Teque adeo, unde fluens reficit lux moUior arva 
Pallidiorque dies, tristes solata tenebras ? 

Sic ego, subridens Dea sic ingressa vicissim : 
Non pennis opus hie, superaut simul ilia petamus : 
Disce, Puer, potius coelo deducere Lunam ; 20 
Neu crede ad magicas te invitum accingier artes, 
Thessalicosve modos ; ipsam descendere Phoeben 
Conspicies novus Endymion ; seque ofFeret ultro 
Visa tibi ante oculos, et nota major imago. 

And Virg. Qeorg. i. 43: 

*' Vere novo, gelidus cams cum montibus humor 
Liquitur.^^ 
V. 13. " Vel scena ut versis discedat frontibus; utque 
Purpurea intexti tollant aulcea Britanni." 

Virg. Greorg. iii. 24. 
V. 14. This and the following line are from Virg. Georg. ii. 
489; and^n. iv. 451. 

V. 20. " Disce, puer," ^n. xii. 435. " Vel coelo possunt 
ieducere lunam," Eclog. viii. 69. 

V. 21. " Magicas invitam adcingier artes," JEn. iv. 493. 

V. 22. " Quae sidera excantata voce Thessala 

Lunamque coelo deripit." Hor. Epod. v. 45 
V. 24. This line is from Virgil, Mn. ii. 773 : 

" Visa 7nihi ante oculos, et not& major imago." 
V 29. " Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit." 

Virg. ^n. iv. 177. 



LUNA HABITABILIS. 179 

Quin tete admoveas (tumuli super aggere spec- 

tas), 25 

Compositum tubulo ; simul imum invade canalem 
Sic intenta acie, coeli simul alta patescent 
Atria; jamque, ausus Lunaria visere regna, 
Ingrediere solo, et caput inter nubila condes. 29 
Ecce autem ! vitri se in vertice sistere Phceben 
Cernis, et Oceanum, et crebris Freta consita terris. 
Panditur ille atram faciem caligine condens 
Sublustri ; refugitque oculos, faUitque tuentem ; 
Integrarn Solis lucem quippe haurit aperto 34 
Fluctu avidus radiorum, et longos imbibit ignes : 
Verum his, qu£e, maculis variata nitentibus, auro 
CcBrula discernunt, celso sese insula dorso 
Plurima protrudit, prastentaque littora saxis ; 
Liberior datur his quoniam natura, minusque 



V. 31. " Et crebris legimus freta consita terris." 

Virg. ^n. iii. 127. 

V. 35. There is no authority in Latin poetry for the use of 
the word " imbibit " in this sense. It is a word unusual in 
poetry, though twice found in Lucretius (iii. 1010, and vi. 71): 
but it is there used in another construction : as " Imbibit 
petere," i.e. " Induxit in aniinum petere." There is a note 
on this word in Mureti Var. Lectiones, lib. i. cap. 6. (In 
Gesner's Thesaurus, and Havercamp's Lucretius, the reference 
to Muretus is wrong, 1. cap. 5.) The word which Gray should 
have used is "bibit." See iEn. i. 749: xi. 804: Georg. ii. 
506, &c. " Lympha bibit solem." Sid. Apoll. xi. 12. See 
the notes of the coramentatorsj on Gratii Cyneg. 60. Burm. 
Poet. Lat. Minor vol. i. p. 60. 

V. 38. This word is unusual in Latin poetry. It may be 
defended on the authority of Lucretius, iv. 247: " Extemplo 
protrudit, agitque aera: " — where, however, some manuscripts 
read " procudit." 

V. 39 " Natura videtur 

Libera" — —. Lucret. ii. 1090 



180 GRAv's roi-:Ms. 

Lumen depascunt liquidum ; sed tela diei 40 

Detorquent, retro que docent se vertere flammas. 
Hinc longos videas tractus, terrasque jacentes 
Ordine candenti, et claros se attoUere montes ; 
Montes queis Rhodope assurgat, quibus Ossa nivali 
Vertice : turn scopulis infra pendentibus antra 45 
Nigrescunt clivorum umbra, nemorumque tene- 

bris. 
Non rores illi, aut desunt sua nubila mundo ; 
Non frigus gelidum, atque herbis gratissimus 

imber ; 
His quoque nota ardet picto Thaumantias arcu, 
Os roseum Aurorse, propriique crepuscula coeli. so 

Et dubitas tantum certis cultoribus orbem 
Destitui ? exercent agros, sua moenia condunt 
Hi quoque, velMartem invadunt, curantque trium- 
Victores : sunt hie etiam sua praemia laudi ; [^pbos 
His metus, atque amor, et mentem mortalia tan- 

gunt. 55 



V. 40. " Lucida tela diei," Lucret. i. 148. " Luciferique 
pavent letalia tela diei," Ausonii Mosell. 260. 

V. 45. " Fronte sub adversJl scopulis pendentibus antrum," 
Virg. ^n. i. 166. 

V. 48. " Quum ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba." 

Virg. Eclog. viii. 15. 

V. 49. " Roseo Thaumantias ore locuta est," Virg. iEn. 
ix. 5. " In terram pictos delapsa per arcus,^* Ov. Met. xiv. 838. 

V. 53. " Invadunt Martem cljpeis," ^n. xii. 712. 

V, 54. " Sunt hic etiam sua prsemia laudi, 

Sunt lacrymas rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt." 

Mn. i. 461. 

V. 56. Scaliger, like Gray, uses tne final vowel in 'uti' 
short; and a short vowel at the end of the first form of tbo 
Elegiac verse. V. Bibl. Parriana, p 322. 



LUNA HABITABILIS. 181 

Quin, uti nos oculis jam nunc juvat ii-e per arva, 
Lucentesque plagas Lun8e,pontumque profundum; 
Idem illos etiam ardor agit, cum se aureus effert 
Sub sudum globus, et terrarum ingentior orbis ; 
Scilicet omne sequor tum lustrant, scilicet omnem eo 
Tellurem, gentesque polo sub utroque jacentes ; 
Et quidam aestivi indefessus ad aetlieris ignes 
Pervigilat, noctem exercens, coelumque fatigat ; 
Jam Galli apparent, jam se Germania late 
ToUit, et albescens pater Appeninus ad auras ; 63 
Jam tandem in Borean, en ! parvulus Anglia naevus 
(Quanquam aliis longe fulgentior) extulit eras ; 
Formosum extemplo lumen, maculamque nitentem 
Invisunt crebri Proceres, serumque tuendo 
HaBrent, certatimque suo cognomine signant : 7o 
Forsitan et Lunae longinquus in orbe Tyrannus 
Se dominum vocat, et nostra se jactat in aula. 
Terras possim alias propiori sole calentes 
Narrare, atque alias, jubaris queis parcior usus, 
Lunarum chorus, et tenuis penuria Phoebi ; 73 
Ni meditans eadem htec audaci evolvere cantu, 
Jam pulset citliaram soror, et prseludia tentet. 
Non tamcn has proprias laudes, nee facta silebo 



V. 63. " Et quiclam seros hiberci ad luminis ignes 

Pervigilat." Virg. Georg. 1. 292. 

V. 65. " Vertice se attollens pater Apenninus ad auras," 

^n. xii. 703. 

V. 72. " Ilia se jactat in aullt," ^n. i. 140. 

V. 75. So Virgil. Georg. i. 424: " Lunasque sequentes." 

V. 75. This expression " Penuria Phoebi " is not, I believe, 
warranted by the authority of any of the Latin poets. There 
would have been less objection, if the plain term, instead of 
the figurative, had been used. 



182 gray's poems. 

Jampridem in fatis, patriaeque oracula famae. 
Tempus erit, sursum totos contendere coetus so 
Quo cernes longo excursu, primosque colonos 
Migrare in lunam, et notos mutare Penates : 
Dum stupet obtutu tacito vetiis incola, longeque 
Insolitas explorat aves, elassemque volantem. 
Ut quondam ignotum marmor, camposque na- 
tantes so 

Tranavit Zephyros visens, nova regna, Columbus; 
Litora mirantur circum, mirantur et undae 
Inclusas acies ferro, turmasque biformes, 
Monstraque foeta armis, et non imitabile fulmen. 
Foedera mox icta, et gemini commercia mundi, 90 
Agminaque assueto glomerata sub asthere cerno. 
Anglia, quee pelagi jamdudum torquet habenas, 
Exercetque frequens ventos, atque imperat undae ; 
Aeris attollet fasces, veteresque triumphos 
Hue etiam feret, et victis dominabitur auris. »5 



V. 79. " Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur," Ov. Met. i. 256. 

V. 83. " Obtutu tacito stetit," Mi\. xii. 606. 

V. 84. " Innumerse comitantur aves, stipantque volantem,*' 
Claud. Phoenix, 76. 

V. 85. " Campique natantes," Geurg. iii. 198. 

V. 89. " Foeta armis," ^n. ii. 238. " Non imitabile ful- 
men," ^n. vi. 590. 

V. 90. " Geminoque facis commercia mundo," Claud, xxxiii. 
90. 

V. 92. ^quoreas habenas," Claud, viii. 422. 

V. 95. " Servitio premet, ac victis dominabitur Argis," Ma. 
i. 285. 



"!S3 



SAPPHIC ODE : TO MR. WEST.* 

(See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 42; on a verfcion of Gray' . 
Latin Odes by Green, in English, see H. Walpole's Leliu.o 
to Cole, p. IK).] 

Barbaras asdes aditure mecuin 
Quas Eris semper fovet inquieta, 
Lis ubi late sonat, et togatum 

^stuat agmen ; 

Dulcius quanto, patulis sub ulmi a 

Hospitse ramis temere jacentem 



* Mason considered this as the first original production of 
Gray's Muse; the two former poems being imposed as ex- 
ercises by the College. 

V. 1. Comp. Hor. Od. ii. vi. 1: " Septimi, Gades aditure 
mecum," &c. Luke. 

V. 3. " Lis nunquam, toga rara," Martial. Ep. x. 47. 
V. 4. So Claudian, xi. 24: 

" Quot (Rstuantes ancipiti gradu 
Furtiva carpent oscula Naides." 
V. 5. " Platanus . . . patulis est diffusa ramis," Cio. de 
Oratore, Lib. L cap. vii. " Hospita umbra," Ovid. Trist. 
III. iii. 64. Hor. Od. ii. iii. 9. 

V. 6. There is no authority for the laM syllable of " temere '* 
being made long. See Burmanui. Anth. Lat. vol. ii. 458, and 
Class. Journal, No. xviii. p. i}40. Yet Casiaiir Sarbievus has 
erred in the quantity of this word, as well as Gray. 
" Te sibilantis lenior halitus 

Pertiabit Euri; me juvet interim 
Collum reclii'asse; et virenti 

Sic temere jacuisse ripa." Ad. Testudinem. 

And Cowley (Solitudo) " Hie jaciens vestris temere sub um- 
bris." Lowth Ode ad orn. Puellam. " Ducit aquas temere 
sequentes." Carmin. Quadrig. ii. 81. " Defessus temere se." 
See Woty's Poet. Calendar, Part xii. p. 34. In Horace, Vir- 



184 gray's fOEMS. 

Sic libris horas, tenuique inertes 

Fallere Musa ? 

Saepe enim curis vagor expedita 
Mente ; dum, blandam meditans Camaenam, 
Vix malo rori, meminive seras u 

Cedere nocti ; 

Et, pedes quo me rapiunt, in omni 
Colle Parnassum videor videre 
FertiUm sjlvee, gelidamque in omni is 

Fonte Aga'uppen. 

Risit et Ver me, facilesque Nympliae 
Nare captantem, nee ineleganti, 
Mane quicquid de violis eundo 

Surripit aura : ^ 



gil, and Ovid the final syllable of this word is always elided. 
— A friend observed, that the last syllable of temere is made 
long in the 'Gradus ' uu the authority of Tertullian : "Im- 
memor ille Dei teimne couimittere tale." It is hardly neces- 
sary to observe that the authority of Tertullian on a question 
of a doubtful quantity would not be esteemed sufficient. The 
last syllable of ttmery his'mg alway!< elided by Virgil, Horace, 
and Ovid, sufficiently shows their opinion to have been, that it 
was shojt; and therefore that it could not be used in Hexa- 
meter verse, without li'iiutheniiig its final syllable by elision. 
See Menagiaiia, vol iii. }». 418. (Hor. Od. ii. xi. 13, " Pinu 
jacentes sic teaiere." Luke.) 

V. 7. " Tenui di'ducta pocin-,ita filo," Hor. Ep. II. 1. 225. 
" Graciles Musas," Propert. Eleg. II. x. 3. Virg. Eclog. i. 2. 
Hor. S. ii. 6, (il, •• Nunc veteruai libris, nnno somno et inertibug 
horis.'^ Luke. 

V. 9. " ultra 

Terminum, curis vagor expeditis *' 
Hor. Od. I. xxii. 10. Virg. Eclog. viii. 88, ' Nee serae memi» 
nit decedere nocti." Luke. 



SAPPHIC ODE. 185 

Me reclinatum teneram per herbam ; 
Qua leves cursus aqua cunque ducit, 
Et moras dulci strepitu lapillo 

Nectit in omni. 

Has novo nostrum fere pectus anno as 

Simplices curae tenuere, coelum 
Quamdiu sudum explicuit Favoni 

Purior hora: 



35 



Otia et campos nee adhue relinquo, 
Nee magis Phoebo Clytie fidelis ; 
(Ingruant venti licet, et senescat 

MoUior aestas.) 

Namque, seu, Igetos hominum labores 



V. 13, 14. " I, pedes quo te rapiunt," Hor. Od. iii. xi. 49. 

«* Videre magnos jam videor duces," Od. ii. i. 21. 

V. 17. " Sed faciles nyinpliae risere," Virg. Eclog. iii. 9. 

V. 18. Virg. Georg. i. 376, " Patulis captavit naribus 
auras." 

V. 19. On the Caesura post alterum pedein, see Fabricius on 

the Metres of Seneca. 

V. 21. Virg. Eclog. viii. 15, " Cum ros in tmera pecori gra- 
tissimus herba." Luke. 

V. 22. " Levis oursu," Virg. Mn. xii. 489. " Cursus du- 
cebat," Mn. v. 667. 

V. 23. Hor. Od. iv. 37, " Dulcem quse strepitum, Fieri, 
temperas." Luke. 

V. 26. " Coeli in regione seren^ 

Per sudum rutilare vident." Virg. ^n. viii. 528. 
V. 30. See Ov. Metam. iv. 234. 264. 

V 31. "Senescit ager," Ovid. Art. Am. iii. 82, ex Pont. 
I, iv. 14. " Molles anni," Ovid. Ep. iii. 3. Tristia, iv. 43. 
'< Mollior aestas," Virg. Georg. i. 312. 

N 



186 gray's poems. 

Prataque et montes recreante curru, 
Purpura tractus oriens Eoos 85 

Vestit, et auro ; 

Sedulus s^rvo veneratus orbem 
Prodigum splendoris ; amoeniori 
Sive dilectam meditatur igne 

Pingere Calpen ; 40 

Usque dum, fulgore magis magis jam 
Languido circum, variata nubes 
Labitur furtim, viridisque in umbras 

Scena recessit. 

O ego felix, vice si (nee unquam 45 

Surgerem rursus) simili cadentem 
Parca me lenis sineret qiiieto 

Fallere Letho! 



V. 34. V. Lucret. v. 402, " Solque * * recreavit cuncta 
gubernans." Luke. 

V. 41. See Tate in the Class. Journ. No. ix. p. 120. " Ho- 
race makes the division after the 5th, 6th, or 7th foot, never 
after the Srd, as the Moderns do." 

V. 45. The last syllable of ego is short, and so used by the 
best yriters; nor will the example of Ausonius, or an instance 
or two of its being found lo7ig in Plautus and Catullus, autho- 
rize a modern poet in this license. See the note by Heinsius 
on Ovid. Ep. xiii. 135, vol. i. p. 180, and Burmann on Pro- 
pertii Bleg. I. viii. 41. " Reete Heinsius, qui nunquam a 
Nasone, p. 93, 94, 733, hnjus vocula3 ultimam produri nrtat; 
et falsos esse illos qui ab ullo Augustei sevi poeta id factum 
contendunt, dicit ad Albinov. Epiced. Drusi. x. 193." See also 
Vossius de Arte Grammatica, lib. ii. cap. 27. Drakenborch, 
in his note on Sil. Italicus xvii. 358, p. 865, (where the last 
syllable of ego is long), relies on the authorities produced by 
Vossius; and thinks that it may be lengthened, even without 
the power of the Cciesiua. 



SAPPHIC ODE. 187 

Multa flagranti radiisque cincto 
Integris ah ! quam nihil inviderem, eo 

Cum Dei ardentes medius quadrigas 
Sentit Olympus. 



ALCAIC FRAGMENT. 
|_See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 43.] 

O LACRYMARUM fons,* tcnero sacros 
Ducentium ortus ex animo ; quater 
Felix! in imo qui scatentem 
Pectore te, pia Njmplia, sensit. 



V. 47. See Stewart's Moral Philosophy, vol. iii. p. 201. 

V. 48. " Natus moriensque fefellit," Hor. Ep. I. xvli. 10. 

V. 49. Mason has improperly accented this word, as if it 
were an adverb (multa). All the other editions have fol- 
lowed him. It is the " numen pro adverbio," as Hor. Od. iv. 
ii. 25. 

V. 52. Virg. Mn. x. 206, " Phoebe medium pulsabat Olym- 
pum." Luke, 

* So Sophocles, Antigone, ver. 803 : 

iax£iv 

(5' ovK ETL TTTj-yug diivafiat Smpvuv. 
V. Chariton, ed. Dorville, p. 5, and Chrysostom in laud, 
Pauli ed. Hemstcrh. p. xxvi. kui TTjjydg doKpViJV ij (ftceu 



188 gkay's poems. 

LATIN LINES 

ADDRESSED TO MR. WEST, PROM GENOA. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 94.] 

Horrid OS tractus, Boreas que linquens 
Regna Taurini fera, moUiorem * 
Advehor brumam, Genuaeque amantes 

Litora soles. 



ELEGIAC VERSES, 

OCCASIONED BY THE SIGHT OF THE PLAINS WHERE THB 
BATTLE OF TREBIA WAS FOUGHT. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 104.] 

(^UA Treble glaucas salices intersecat unda, 
Arvaque Romanis nobilitata malis. 

Visus adhuc amnis veteri de clade rubere, 
Et suspirantes ducere moestus aquas ; 

Maurorumque ala, et nigrse increbescere turmae, a 
Et pulsa Ausonidum ripa sonare fuga. 



♦ So in the Sapphic Ode, " Mollior asstas." Ovid in hia 
Epist. ex Ponto, i. ii. 62: " Litora moUia." 

V. 1. I do not know on what authority Gray has used the 
word " Treble " with the final e. The word which is used in 
the Classic authors is Trebia, Tpe(3iag. See Sil. Ital. iv. 661, 
xi. 140, &c. ssape. Lucan, ii. 46. Livy, xxi. c. 48. Pliny, 
N. H. 3. 20, &c. Claudian, xxiv. 145. Manilius, iv. 661. — 
It is most probable that Gray thought that the final syllable 
of Trebia could not be lengthened; therefore used the word 



189 



CARMEN AD C. FAVONIUM ZEPHYRINTTM.* 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 120.] 

Mater rosarum, cui teneree vigent 
Auras Favoni, cui Venus it comes 
Lasciva, Nympharum choreis 
Et volucrum celebrata cantu ! 



Treble, as Libya, Libye. But in Ovid the words Leda, Rhea, 
Hybla, Phgedva, Andromeda, Amalthea, &g. lengthen the final 
syllable. " Mittit Hypermnestra de tot modo fratribus uni," 
Ov. Ep. xiv. 1. In Propertius, ii. xi. 5. the a in Electra is 
long; also in Ovid. Fast. iv. 177. See on this point D'Orville. 
Misc. Obs. ii. 202, and Burmann. notes to Anthol. Latin, i. 
215. ii. 78. Jortin. Tracts, vol. ii. 421. Burmann. Propert. 
iv. 7. 63. p. 844. In the Here. Fur. of Seneca, 203: "Me- 
gara parvum comitata gregem." Gray therefore would have 
had suflBcient authority for the use of Trebia in this place. 
So Sil. Italicus, iv. 661, describing the appearance of Trebia: 

*• Turn madidos crines, et glauca ■\ fronde revinctum 
Attollit cum voce caput." 
Virg. Georg. iv. 182: "Et glaucas salices." Luke. 

V. 5. Sil. Ital. describes the army of Hannibal, iii. 407: 
" Talia Sidonius per campos agmina ductor 
Pulvere nigrantes raptat." 

* Written by Gray immediately after his journey to Fras- 
oati and the cascades of Tivoli, which he had described in a 
preceding letter to his friend West. 

V. 1. '* Et reserata mget genitalis aura Favoni.^' 

Lucret. i. 2. 



f When the epithet glauca is applied to the foliage of a tree, 
and the tree itself not particularized, as in the passage of Sil. 
Italicus; we must refer it to the " salix," the " populus," or 
the " oliva; " according to situation, and other circumstanses; 
as ** Caeruleus " is generally applied to the Pine, Fir, and 
Cypress. 



15 



190 gray's poems. 

Die, non inertem fallere qua diem 
Amat sub umbra, seu sinit aureum 
Dormire plectrum, seu retentat 
Pierio Zephjrinus antro 
Furore dulci plenus, et immemor 
JReptantis inter frigora Tusculi 
Umbrosa, vel colles Amici 
Palladiae superantis Alb^e. 
Dilecta Fauno, et capripedum choris 
Pineta, testor vos, Anio minax 
Quaecunque per clivos volutus 
Prae(npiti tremefecit amne, 
niius altum Tibur, et -^sulae 
Audisse sylvas iiomen amabiles, 
Illius et gratas Latinis 

Naisin ingeminasse rupes ; 2) 



v. 6. *' Et te sonantem plenius aureo, 

Alcase, plectra." Hor. Od. ii. xiii. 26. 

V. 8. *' Pierio recreatis antro," Hor. Od. iii. iv. 40. 

V. 14. *' Et prseceps Anio, ac Tiburni lucus," Hor. Od. i. 
vii. 13. « Preceps Anien," Stat. Silv. i. v. 25. 

V. 20. In Mason's, and all the subsequent editions, the 
word *' Naiasin " is here placed; which would make the line 
unmetrical. Gray indeed might have written " Na'iasin gemi- 
n^sse rupes." But the word " Naides ", in the following line, 
which has also the same error in the editions as the former 
word, would make an objection to that reading. I have there- 
fore restored the metre, by reading " Naisin " and " Naides.'* 
See Gronovius on Senecae Hippol. 778. Jortin. Tracts, vol. i. 
p. 321. 

V. 20. See Propert. i. xx. 12: "Non minor Ausonius est 
amor ah ! Dryasin." Audi. xx. 32: *'Ah! dolor ibat Hylas, 
ibat Haraadryasin." And Ov. Art. Am. iii. 672. See Bar- 
mann. note to Ovid, Ep. xiii. 137, and Trist. v. 6. 43. V. 
Lotichii. Poem. i. p. 226. ed Burm. and Burm. Anthol. Lat. 
vol. ii. p. 608. Burm. ad Virg. Eclog. x. 10. Salmasii Ling. 
Helen, p. 142. 



AD C. FAVONIUM ZEPHTRINUM. 191 

Nam me Latinae Naides uvida 
Videre ripa, qua niveas levi 
Tarn ssepe lavit rore plumas 
Dulce canens Venu sinus ales ; 
Mirum ! canenti conticuit nemus, 25 

Sacrique fontes, et retinent adhuc 
(Sic Musa jussit) sax a moUes 
Docta modos, vetcresque lauri. 
Mirare nee tu me citharge rudem 
Claudis laborantcm numeris : loca 8b 

Amoena, jucundumqne ver in- 
compositum docuere carmen ; 



v. 23. In this, the following, and the last stanza, the third 
line of the Alcaic stanza ends with two dissyllables ; which 
can be defended but by very few examples of Horace. See 
the fictitious ode, lib. i. 40. ad Librum suum, (published by 
Villoison in Long. Past.) v. 11. " Huic ara stabit, fama 
cantu." Another error in this verse is the absence of the 
accent on the fifth or sixth syllable. 

V. 26. " Kprivr}^ lepbv poov,'" Apoll. Rhod. i. 1208. iv. 134. 
Theocr. Idyll, ii. 1. 69. " Ad aqucB lene caput sacrcs," Hor. 
Od. i. i. 22. " Nee sacros pollue fontes," Ovid. Metam. ii. 
464. " Fonte sacro," Virg. ^n. vii. 84. and Jortin's remarks 
on Spenser, vol. i. p. 63. 

V. 30. This is the only instance in this ode in which Gray 
has not conformed to the rule of the "divisio versus post 
quintam ayllabam." In the other Alcaic Ode on the Char- 
treusCj there is also one instance similar to this : 
" Per invias rupes, fera per juga." 

The practice of Horace certainly seems to authorize this 
rule. Three exceptions are to be found: Od. lib. i. xxxvii. 6, 
i. xxxvii. 14, and Od. iv. xiv. 16. I do not know that there 
are any more; of course, the case of an elided syllable being 
«sxcepted. 

V. 31. In Horace there are but nine instances of an amphi- 
brachys, as " Amoena," beginning the third line of the Alcaic 
stanza. As the places where it occurs in that poet have not, 
I believe, been ever pointed out, I will set them down here, 



192 grat's poems. 

Haerent sub omni nam folio nigri 
Phoebea luci (credite) somnia, 

Argutiusque et lympha et aurae ss 

Nescio quid solito loquuntur. 



FRAGMENT OF A LATIN POEM* ON THB 
GAURUS. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 145.] 

Nec procul infelix se toUit in asthera Gaurus, 
Prospiciens vitreum lugenti vertice pontum: 
Tristior ille diu, et veteri desuetus oliva 
Gaurus, pampineseque eheu jam nescius umbrae; 



to save any trouble to those desirous of seeing them : i. xvii. 
7, i. xsix. 7, i. xxxv. 15, i. xxxvii. 15, ii. iii. 3, ii. xvii. 3, ii. 
XX. 11, iii. iii. 71, iii. xxix. 11. 

V. 31, 32. There is no instance in Horace of a broken tuord 
ending the third line of the Alcaic stanza, or, indeed, of its 
being used at all ; and therefore it must be considered as not 
defended by authority; though it may be found ending the 
third line of the Sapphic stanza, in Horace, i. xxv. 11. i. ii. 
19, ii. xvi. 7, iii. xxvii. 60, but, I believe, that no example 
even of this can be found in the Sapphics of Seneca. It ends 
the first line, in Hor. Od. iv. ii. 1, and the second line in ii. ii. 
18, and iv. ii. 22, in which latter passage it is to be observed, 
that the "divisio vocis" takes place in two successive lines. 

V. 33. " Quam sedem Somnia vulgo 

Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus haerent." 

Virg. ^n. vi. 283, 

* Sent by Gray to his friend "West, with a reference to San- 
dys's Travels, book iv. pag. 275, 277, and 278. A translation 
of this poem may be seen in the Gent. Mag. for July, 1775. 

V. 2. "Vitreo ponto," Hor. Od. iv. ii. 3. « Vitrea unda," 
Virg. iEn. vii. 759. Georg. iv, 350. 

V 4. *' Bacchei vineta madentia Gauri," Statii Silv. iii. v 
99. " loario nemorosus palmite Gaurus," Silv. iii. i. 147. 



THE GAURUS. 193 

Horrendi tarn saeva premit vicinia montis, s 

Attonitumque urget latus, exuritque ferentem. 

Nam fama est olim, media dum rura silebant 
Nocte, Deo victa, et moUi perfusa quiete, 
Infremuisse aequor ponti, auditamque per omnes 
Late tellurem surdum immugire cavernas : lo 
Quo sonitu nemora alta tremunt : tremit excitatuto 
Parthenopsea sinu, flammantisque ora Vesevi. 
At subito se aperire solum, vastosque recessus 
Pandere sub pedibus, nigraque voragine fauces ; 
Turn piceas cinerum glomerare sub ^ethere nubes 
Vorticibus rapidis, ardentique imbre procellam. le 
Praecipites fugere ferae, perque avia longe 
Sylvarum fugit pastor, juga per deserta. 
Ah, miser ! increpitans saepe alta voce per umbram 
Nequicquam natos, creditque audire sequentes. 20 
Atque ille excelso rupis de vertice solus 
Respectans notasque domos, et dulcia regna, 
Nil usquam videt infelix praeter mare tristi 
Lumine percussum, et pallentes sulphure campos 



V. 5. "Vicinia Persidis urget," Georg. iv. 290. "Pampi- 
neas invidit collibus umbras," Virg. Ec. vii. 58. 

V. 9. " Immania ponti sequora," Lucret. vi. 624. 

V. 10. " Curvisque immugiit >^tna cavernis.'* ^n.iii. 674, 

V. 11. "Turn sonitu Proehyta alta tremit.^* 

Virg. ^n. ix. 715. . Luke. 

V 15. " Pice^ crassam caligine nubem," Virg. Georg. ii. 
309. " Vorago, pestiferas aperit fauces," ^n. vii. 569. 

V 17. " Terra tremit: fugere ferae," Virg. Georg. i. 330. 

V 24. « tum longo limite sulcus 

Pat Zwcem, et latd ciroum loca sulphure fuuiant.'* 

Virg. ^n. ii. 698 



194 gray's poems. 

Fumumque, flammasque, rotataque turbine saxa. 
Quin ubi detonuit fragor, et lux reddita coelo ; 
Msestos confluere agricolas, passuque videres 
Tandem iterum timido deserta requirere tecta : 
Sperantes, si forte oculis, si forte darentur 
Uxorum cineres, miseroruiave ossa parentum a; 
Tenuia, sed tanti saltern solatia luctus) 
Una colligere et justa componere in urna. 
Uxorum nusquam cineres, nusquam ossa parentum 



And, *' Sulphur ei cum per juga oonsita Gauri," Ausonii Mosell. 
p. 387, ed. Tollii. " Anhelantem ccelesti sulfure campum,'* 
V. Stat. Theb. xi. 17. 

V. 25. In the modern Latin poetry, this license of length- 
ening the " que " before the mute and liquid, even with the 
power of the caesura, ought to be avoided, as it is supported 
by so few examples. See Virg. ^n. vii. 186. Greorg. i. 164. 
And see also Mn. iii. 91. Ov. Met. v. 484, and Class. Jour- 
nal, No. xxi. p. 174, xxii. 364. 

V. 26. This is not a common expression in Latin poetry. 
Val. Flaccus has, " Dum detonet ira : " iv. 294. See also 
Quintilian (Gresn. xii. ix. 4): "Cum ilia dicendi vitiosa jac- 
tatio inter plausores sero detonuit." Petron. Sat. c. xvii. 
p. 37. Sid. Apollin. c. xiv. 24. 

v. 31. See Virg. Georg. i. 397: "Tenuia nee lanae," &c. — 
ii. 121 : "Depectant tenuia Seres." Lucret. iv. 747. And 
Terent. Maur. ver. 474. 

V. 31. " Solatia luctus 

Exigua ingentis misero sed debita patri." 

^n. xi. 62. 

V. 32. I should conceive the proper phrase to be " Colligere 
in unum," and not una. Virg. Eel. vii. 2 : " Compulerant- 
que greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum." Cicero de In- 
ventione, i. 56 : " Colligere et conferre in tmum.'^ Again, 
*' Militibus in unum conductis." And Philip, ix. : " Si omnes 
juris consulti in unum conferantur." Ovidii Met. iii. 715. 
See the note on Ovid. Metam. xiii. 910. 

V. 33. ^ « Alas ! 

Nor wife, nor children more shall he behold. 
Nor friends, nor sacred home." 

Thomson. Winter, 315t 



THE GAURUS. 195 

(Spem miseram !) assuetosve Lares, aut rura vide- 
Quippe ubi planities campi diffusa jacebat; [bunt. 
Mons novus : ille suj)ercilium, frontemque favilla 
Incanum ostentans, ambustis cautibus, sequor 
Subjectum, stragemque suam, meesta arva, minaci 
Despicit imperio, soloque in littore regnat. 

Hinc infame loci nomen, muitosque per annos 
Immemor antiquse laudis, nescire labores 4i 

Vomeris, et nuUo tellus revirescere cultu. 
Non avium coUes, non carmine matutino 
Pastorum re^onare ; adeo undique dirus habebat 
Informes late horror agros saltusque vacantes. 45 
Ssepius et longe detorquens navita proram 
Monstrabat digito littus, saevaeque revolvens 
Funera narrabat noctis, veteremque ruinam. 

Montis adbuc facies manet hirta atque aspera 
saxis : 49 

Sed furor extinctus jamdudum, et flamma quievit, 
Quae nascenti aderat ; sen forte bituminis atri 
Defluxere olim rivi, atque effoeta lacuna 
Pabula sufficere ardori, viresque recusat ; 
Sive in visceribus meditans incendia jam nunc 
(Horrendum) arcanis glomerat genti esse futursB 
Exitio, sparsos tacitusque recoUigit ignes. bs 



v. 41. " Res antiquse laudis," Virg. Georg. ii. 174. 

V. 43. « Matutini cantus," ^n. viii. 456. Par. Lost, v. 7. 

V. 45. " Longe saltus, lateque vacantes.*^ 

Virg. Georg. iii. 476. Luke* 

V. 47. "Indice monstraret digito^" Her. Sat. ii. viii. 26. 
And Pers. i. 28 

V. 56. " Sparsosque recolligit ignes," Lucan. i. 157. " Dum 
tacitas vires, et flammam colligit ignis," Sil. ItaL iv. 307; 



196 gray's poems. 

Raro per clivos haud secius ordine vidi 
Canescentem oleam : longum post tempus amicti 
Vite virent tumuli ; patriamque revisere gaudensi 
Bacchus in assuetis tenerum caput exerit arvis «> 
Vix tandem, infidoque audet se credere coelo. 



A FAREWELL TO FLORENCE. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 167.] 

* * Oh Fsesulse amcena 
Frigoribus juga, nee nimium spirantibus auris ! 
Alma quibus Tusci Pallas decus Apennini 
Esse dedit, glaucaque sua canescere sylva ! 
Non ego vos posthac Arni de valle videbo a 

Porticibus circum, et candenti cincta corona 
Villarum longe nitido consurgere dorso, [sus 

Antiquamve ^dem, et veteres praeferre Cupres- 
Mirabor, tectisque super pendentia tecta. 



and Virg. Georg. i. 427. The position of "que" is wrong. 
See note to Burm. Ovid. Metam. xiv. 30 ; but also consult 
Class. Journal. No. xxii. p. 22. 

V. 58. "Fcetum canentis olivae," Ov. Met. vi. 81. 

V. 60. "Jammodo coeruleo nitidum caput exsere ponto,*' 
Ov. Met. xiii. 838. And Fast. i. 458. 

V. 61. " Pennis ausus se credere coelo," Virg. ^n. vi. 15. 

V. 1 In Sil. Ital. Pun. viii. 478, the second syllable of this 
word is short: "Faesula, et antiquus Romanis mcenibus hor- 
ror." Polybius also (lib. ii. cap. 9,) writes ^aicdXa. In 
ether authors, as Appian. Civ. Bell. ii. c. 2. Dion, xxxvii. it 



197 
IMITATION OF AN ITALIAN SONNET 

OF 8IGNI0R ABBATE BUONDEIiMONTE. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 158.] 

Spesso Amor sotto la forma 
D'amista ride, e s'asconde : 
Poi si mischia, e si confonde 
Con lo sdegno, e col rancor. 
In Pietade ei si trasforma; 
Par trastullo, e par dispetto ; 
Ma nel suo diverso aspetto 
Sempr' egli, e 1' istesso Amor. 

LusiT amicitise interdum velatus amictu, i 

Et bene composita veste fefellit Amor. 

is written ^i.aov?Mi, which appears to be the more ancient or- 
thography. See Cluver. Ital. Antiq. vol. i. p. 509. 
V. 6. *' Non ego vos posthac, viridi projectus in antro, 
Dumos^ pendere procul de rupe videbo." 

Virg. Eel. i. 76. 
V. 7. " Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis," Hor. Bp. 
i. XV. 46. " Superni villa candeias Tusculi," Epod. i- 29. 
"Candida qua geminas ostendunt culmina turres," Propert. 
Eleg. iii. xvi. 3. " Nitidos lares," Martial. Ep. i. 71. 2. 
V. 8. " Prteferimus manibus vittas," Mn. vii. 237. 
V. 9. " Talia despectaiit longo per coerula tractu 
Pcndentes saxis instanti culmine, villfB.'" 

Ausonii Mosell. ver. 283. 

And, "Culmina villarum. pendentihus edita ripis." v. 20. 

V. 1. "Intrat amicitiae nomine, tectus Amor." 

Ovid. Ar. Am. i. 720. 

"Ut mihi praetextae pudor exvelatus amictu." 

Propert. iii. xxiii. 3. 

V. 2. " At me compositSi pace fefellit amor," Propert. El. 
li. ii. 6. "Cum bene compositis," Manil. iv. 58. 



198 gray's poems. 

Mox irae assumpsit cultus, faciemque minantem, 
Inque odium versus, versus et in lacrymas : 

Ludentem fuge, nee lacrjrmanti, aut crede furenti; 
Idem est dissimili semper in ore Deus. « 



ALCAIC ODE,* 

WRITTEN IN THE ALBUM OF THE GRA.NDB CHARTREUSE, 
IN DAUPHIN Y, AUGUST 1741. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 160, and W. S. Landori 
Poemata, p. 195"; An imitation of this ode appeared by Mr. 
Seward in Europ. Mag. 1791, and it is translated in E. Cart- 
wright's Poems, 1803, p. 91.] 

Oh Tu, severi Religio loci, 
Quocunque gaudes nomine (non leve 
Nativa nam certe flnenta 

Numen liabet, veteresque sjlvas ; 



V. 5. So Moschus, Idyll, i. 25: 

Ktjv TTor' Idrjc KAaiovra, <pvXaGaeo (j.t) ae nTuiVT^ai^, 
K^j^ yeXaa, rd vtv l/l/ce, Kal ?}v hde'Aij ah ^cKaaai, 
*^£vye. 

This little poem has been translated into English verse by 
Mr. Walpole; see his works, vol. iv. p. 454; and also by the 
author of "The Pleasures of Memory: " see Rogers's Poems, 
p. 165. 

* In Heron's [Pinkerton] "Letters of Literature," p. 299, 
is a translation of this ode ; and, after that, a most extraordi- 
nary assertion, which I wish the author of that book had not 
given me an opportunity of producing: as, to say no worse, it 
is erroneous in every instance. " This exquisite ode," says he, 
'*is ty no meann in the Alcaic meiiaurc, whic Mr. Gray sterna to 



ALCAIC ODE. 199 

Prsesentiorem et conapicimus Deuni s 

Per invias rupes, fera per juga, 
Clivosque praeruptos, sonantes 

Inter aquas, nemorumque noctem ; 
Quam si repostus sub trabe citrea 
Fulgeret auro, et Phidiaca manu) lo 

Salve vocanti rite, fesso et 
Da placidam juveni quietem. 



have intended it for. The Alcaic measure, as used by Horace, 
consists of six feet, or twelve syllables, in the two first lines; 
three feet and a half, or seven syllables, in the third; and four 
feet, or eight syllables, in the fourth. ' Truly, Master Holo- 
fernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the 
least.' " (Love's Labour's Lost.) And yet I am afraid that 
tbis ingenious commentator has not experienced how true is 
the admonition given by the Moorish grammarian. 
'* Quid sit litera, quid dua?, 

Junctas quid sibi syllabae. 

Dumos inter, et aspera 

Scruposis sequimur vadis. 

Fronte exile uegotium 

Et dignum pueris putes. 

Aggresnia labor arduus 

Nec tractihile prndus tst.^^ 

Terent. Maur. Pra'f. 6. ed. Brissaeo. 
V. 2. " Neque enlm leve nomen Amataj," ^En. vii. 581. 
V. Cas. Sarb. Carm. p. 216. ed. Barbou. 

V. 6. This verse would be reckoned faulty, from the absence 
of the caesura in its right place. See the note to the " Car- 
men ad Favonium," ver. 30. 

V. 8. " Veteris sub nocte cupressi," Val. Flac. i. 774. " Nox 
propria luoo est," Senecje Thyestes, ver. 678. 
"Each tree whose thick and spreading growth hath made 
Rather a night between the boughs than shade." 

Davenant. v. Dry den. Misc. vi. 318. 
V. 9. "Ponit marmoream sub trabe citrea." 

Hor. Od. iv. i. 20 
V. 10 "Phidiaca manu," Martial, vi. 73. x. 89. 
V. 11 . " Mihi cumque salve 

Rite vocanti." Hor. Od. i. xxxii. 15. 



200 gray's poems. 

Quod si invidendis sedibus, et frui 
Fortuna sacra lege silentii 

Vetat volentem, me resorbens u 

In medios violenta fluctus : 
Saltern remoto des, Pater, angulo 
Horas senectse ducere liberas ; 
Tutumque vulgar! tumultu 

Surripias, hominumque curis. so 



PART OF AN HEROIC EPISTLE 

PROM 80PH0NISBA TO MASINISSA. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 46, " I thank him (Mason) 
for one, thinking, as I do, many of the lines fully equal to 
Ovid's." MS. note of Bennett, Bishop of Cloyne.] 

Egregium accipio promissi Munus amoris, 
Inque manu mortem, jam fruitura, fero : 

Atque utinam citius mandasses, luce vel una ; 
Transieram Stygios non inhonesta lacus. 

Victoris nee passa toros, nova nupta, mariti, s 
Nee fueram fastus, Roma superba, tuos. 



V. 14, *'Utrumque sacro digna silentio." Hor. Od. ii. xiii. 
29. "Resorbens," Hor. Od. ii. vii. 15. 

V. 4. " Quamvis ista mihi mors est inhonesta futura. 

Mors inhonesta quidem." Propert. El. ii. vii. 89. 

V. 5. " Virgineo nullum corpore passa virum," Ovid. Past. 
V. 146. Virg. Georg. iii. 60. 



AN HEROIC EPISTLE. 201 

Scilicet hgec partem tibi, Masinissa, triumphi 

Detractam, hsec pompae jura minora suae 
Imputet, atque uxor quod nori'tua pressa catenis, 

Objecta et ssevse piausibus orbis eo : lo 

Quin tu pro tantis cepisti praamia factis, 

Magnum Romanas pignus araicitise ! 
Scipiaclae excuses, oro, si, tardius utar 

Munere. Non nimium vivere, crede, veiim. i4 
Parva mora est, breve sed tempus mea fama re- 
quirit : 

Detinet hsec animam cura suprema meam. 
Quae patriae prodesse meae Regina ferebar. 

Inter Elisaeas gloria prima nurus, 
Ne videar flammse nimis indulsisse secundae, 

Vel nimis hostiles extimuisse manus. 20 

Fortunam atque annos liceat revocare priores, 



V. 7. In Mason's edition it is spelt 'Massinissa; ' which, 
however, will only partially correct the quantity ; as the 
second syllable will still be short. See Ovid. Fast. vi. 769: 
" Postera lux melior, superat Masinissa Syphacein." And 
Sil. Ital. xvi. 117: 

" Cul tuque Aeneadum nomen Masinissa superbum." 

That ' Masinissa ' is the right orthography, see Draken 
borch's note on Sil. Italicus; Gronovius on Livy, lib. xxv. e. 
xxxiv. 11; Vor.stius on Val. Max. i. i. 31. Tortellius, in his 
Grrammatical Commentaries, under the word ' Masanissa,' says, 
' Non enim primuin aliquo pncto duplicari potuit: ut ignari 
quidam sylhibarum voluerunt." See also Nultenii Lexiconj 
vol. 1. p. 112. Cellarii Orthog. Lat. i. p. 285. 

V. 12. "I liber absentis pignus ainicitiae." 

Martial, ix. cii, 

V. 15. " Parva mora est," Ovid. Met. i. 671. Ep. ii. 144. 

V. 18. See Sil. Italicus. ii. 239; vi. 346; xiv. 257. 

V. 20. " Pallet, et hostiles credit adesse manus,*'' Ov. Fast 
Ii. 468. 

V. 21. " Non annis revocare tuis," Ov. Met. vii. 177. 
O 



202 GRAY'S POEMS. 

Gaudiaque heu ! quantis nostra repensa malis. 
Primitiasne tuas meministi atque arma Sypliacis 

Fusa, et per Tyrias ducta trophaea vias ? 
(Laudis at antiquse forsan meminisse pigebit, 25 

Quodque decus quondam causa ruboris erit.) 
Tempus ego certe memini, felicia Poenis 

Quo te non puduit solvere vota dels ; 
Mocniaque intrantem vidi : longo agmine duxit 

Turba salutantum, purpureique patres. so 

Foeminea ante omnes longe admiratur euntem 

Hseret et aspectu tota caterva tuo. 
Jam flexi, regale decus, per colla capilli, 

Jam decet ardenti fuscus in ore color ! 
Commendat frontis generosa modestia formam, ss 

Seque cupit laudi surripuisse suse. 



V. 26. " Aut ubi ccssaras, causa ruboris eram." 

Ov. Trist. iii. vii. 26. 

V. 27. Here the last syllable of ego is again made long. 
See tlie note to the Sapphic Ode to West, vcr. 45, p. 186. I 
have only to add to that note, that ego is eaid to be found with 
this quantity in the ' Diraj Catonis,' ver. 15(i; but which line 
is thus given by Wernsdorf, vol. iii. p. li): 

" Ausus egon' primus custos violare pudoresl " 
and by all the other editors prior to him. bee Pithici Catul. 
p. 219. Soaligeri Collect, p. 61 . JBuxhorhii Poet. Sat. p. 117. 
Burmanni Anthol. ii. 674 ; but erroneously : see Bentley's 
Canon, Heavt. Terentii, act v. sc. 1. and Clas. Journ. No. Ixii. 
p. 352. 

V. 30. " Turba salutantum," Claudian. iii. 213, p. 30, ed. 
Gesn. Virgil. Georg. ii. 462. 

V. 31. " Omnia foemineis quare dilecta catervis," Martial. 
xi. 48. " Venit in exsequias tota caterva meas," Prop. iv. 
xi. 68. And " aspectu haesit," Virg. ^n, iii. 597. 

V. 34. " Et enim fusco grata colore Venus," Ov. Amor. 
ii. 440. And Propert. El. ii. xix. 78. 

V. 35. Ov. Medicara. ver. 1. " Qua; faciem commendat 
cura." And ad Liv. 259. 



AN HEROIC EPISTLE. 203 

Prima genas tenui signat vix flore juventas, 

Et dextrse soli credimus esse virum. 
Dum faciles gradiens oculos pe^ singula jactas, 

(Seu rexit casus lumina, sive Venus) « 

In me (vel certe visum est) con versa morari 

Sensi ; virgineus perculit ora pudor. 
Nescio quid vultum molle spirare tuendo, 

Credideramque tuos lentius ire pedes. 
Quserebam, juxta eequalis si dignior esset, 45 

Quae poterat visus detinuisse tuos : 
Nulla fuit circum oequalis quae dignior esset, 

Asf-eruitque decus conscia forma suum. 
Pompae finis erat. Tota vix nocte quievi, 

Sin premat invitae lumina victa sopor, so 

Somnus liabet pompas, eademque recursat imago ; 

Atque iterum hesterno munere victor ades.f 

* -r:.- * * * 

V. 37. " Ora puer prima signans intonsa juventa,*' Virg. 
^n. ix. 181. Also Ovid. Met. xiii. 754. Virg. Mn. vii. 162. 
viii. 160. 

V. 39. " Facilesque oculos fert omnia circum," Virg. ^n. 
viii. 310. 

V. 40. " Ad fratrem casu lumina flexa tulit," Ov. Trist. 
iii. ix. 22. 

V. 43. Gray lias in tbis instance preserved a metrical canon, 
which has been broken tlirougli by many of the modern Latin 
poets; — repeatedly by Milton, Addison, Buchanan, and T. 
Warton. Bee the Classical Journal, 1. 71. 283, xxi. l74. xxii. 
364. aiid Barthius and Burman on Nemcsian Eclog. ii. 32. see 
Poet. Lat Minor, vol. i. p. 570. and Dav?es. Misc. Ciit. ed. 
Kidd. p. 3. 

V. 4G. " Sa^pe oculos etiam detinuisse tuos," Ov. Trist. ii. 
520. 

Y. -i). " iiifelix t ita quicumque quicacere nocte^^ Ovid. 
Amor. ii. 0. 39. 

V. 50. " Lumina cum placido incta sopore jacent," Ov. Ep. 
xvi. 100. 

t Eliis, iu h\s Ilisturical Sketch of English Poetry, (p. 224,> 



204 gray's poems. 

DIDACTIC POEM UNFINISHED : 
• ENTITLED 

DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 

LIBER PRIMUS, AD FAVONIUM. 

[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 55. J 

Unde Animus scire incipiat ; quiBus inchoet orsa 
Principiis seriem rerum, tenuemque catenam 
Mnemosyne : Ratio unde rudi sub pectore tardura 
Augeat imperium ; et primum mortalibus -dLgris 
Ira, Dolor, Metus, et Curse nascantur inanes, s 
Hinc eanere aggredior. Nee dedignare canentem, 
decus ! Angliacee eerte lux altera gentis 1 
Si qua primus iter monstras, vestigia conor 
Signare incerta, tremulaque insistere plants,. 
Quill potius due ipse (potes namque omnia) sanc- 
tum ic 
Ad limen (si rite adeo, si pectore puro,) 



thinks that the description of the entry of Troilus into Troy, 
in Chaucer's Romance of Troilus and Greseida, suggested to 
Gray some very beautiful lines in this Epistle: "Jam fiexi, 
regale decus," &c. (See Chaucer, b. xi. st. 83. fol. 151. ed 
1602.) 

" This Troilus sat on his baye steed. 
All armed, save his head, full richely," &c 

V. 4. Virg. Georg. i. 237, " Mortalibus ajgris," and Lucret 
vi- 1. Lw/ff. 

V. 5. Virg. Georg. iv. 3-15, " Curam Clymene narrabat 
inanem." Luke. 

V. 7. " iMagna) spes altera Romae," Virg. Mn. xii. 168. 
J.UiS apustruphe is addressed to ' Locke.' 

V. 9. " Tremulis possuut insistere plantis," Juv. Sat. vi. 96, 



DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 205 

Obscurae reserans Naturae ingentia claustra. 
Tu cagcas rerum causas, fontemque severum 
Pande, Pater ; tibi enim, tibi, veri magne Sacerdos, 
Corda patent hominum, atque altse penetralia 
Mentis. is 

Tuque aures adhibe vacuas, facilesque, Favoni, 
(Quod tibi crescit opus) simplex nee despice car- 
men, 
Nee vatem : non ilia leves primordia motus, 
Quanquam parva, dabunt. Laetum vel amabile 
quicquid [auras, 

Usquam oritur, trahit hinc ortum ; nee surgit ad 
Quin ea conspirent simul, eventusque secundent. 
Hinc variae vitai artes, ac mollior usus, 22 

Dulce et amicitiae vinclum : Sapientia dia 
Hinc roseum accendit lumen, vultuque serene 
Humanas aperit mentes, nova gaudia monstrans, 
Deformesque fugat curas, vanosque timores : 26 
Scilicet et rerum crescit pulcherrima Virtus. 
Ilia etiam, quae te (mirum) noctesque diesque 



V. 12. Natures primus portarum claustra cupiret,*' Lueret. 
i. 72. " Csecas causas," Ibid. iii. 317. Virg. ^En. vii. 15 
•* portarum ingentia claustra." Luke. 

V. 13. " Amnemque severum," Virg. -^n. vi. 374. And 
Georg. iii. 7: Amnemque severum Cocyti metuet." 

V. 15. " Mentis penetralia nudat," Claud. Rap. Pros. i. 213. 

V. 16. " Faciles habuit aures," Quintil. Inst. Orat. vi. v. 
p. 576. " Vacuas aures adhibe," Lueret. i. 45. 

V. 21. " Eventusque secundet," Virg. Georg. iv. 397. 

V. 24. "Rubens accendit lumina Vesper," Virg. Georg. 
i. 251. 

V. 26. Hor. Epod. xiii. 18, " Deformis aagrimonise. " Luke. 

V. 27. " Scilicet et rerum facta est pulcherrima Roma»" 
Georg. ii. 534. 



206 gray's poems. 

Assidue fovet inspirans, linguamque sequentem 
Temperat in numeros, atque horas mulcet inertes ; 
Aurea non alia se jactat origine Musa. si 

Principio, ut magnum foedus Natura creatrix 
Firmavit, tardis jussitque inolescere membris 
Sublimes animas ; tenebroso in carcere partem 
Noluit setheream longo torpere veterno : sa 

Nee per se proprium passa exercere vigm^em est, 
Ne sociae molis conjunctos sperneret artus, 
Ponderis oblita, et coelestis conscia flammse. 
Idcirco innumero ductu tremere undique fibras 
Nervorum instituit : tum toto corpore miscens 4o 
Implicuit late ramos, et sensile textum, 
Implevitque humore suo (seu Ijmplia vocanda, 
Sive aura est) tenuis certe, atque levissima quae- 

dam 
Vis versatur agens, parvosque infusa canales 
Perfluit ; assidue externis quae concita plagis, 45 
Mobilis, incussique fidelis nuntia motus, 
Hinc inde accensa contage relabitur usque 
Ad superas hominis sedes, arcemque cerebri. 

V. 31. *' At non Venus aurea contra," Virg. iEn. x. 16. 
*' Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea," Hor. Od. i. v. 9. 
V. 32. Rerum natura creatrix," Lucret. i. 623. 
V. 33. See note at p. 176, on the position of "que,** and 
Burman on Antholog. Lat. vol. i. p. 607. 

V. 35. " Nee torpere gravi passus sua regna veterno^** Virg. 
Georg. i. 124. 

V. 45. " Sequenti concita plaga" Lucret. iv. 189. «• Ex 
ternis plagis," Ibid. ii. 1140. 

V. 48. ♦' Stetit unis in arcem 

Erectus capitis.** Manil. Astron. iv. 906. 

*' Penitusque supremum, 

In cerebrum.'* Claud, xviii. 62. 



DE FKlNCIFllS COGITANDI. 207 

Namque illic posuit solium, et sua templa sacravit 
Mens animi : banc circum coeunt, densoque fe- 
runtur so 

Agmine notitise, simulacraque tenuia rerum : 
Ecce autem naturae ingens aperitur imago 
Immensse, variique patent commercia mundi. 

Ac uti longinquis descendunt montibus amnes 
Yelivolus Tamisis, flaventisque Indus arence, ss 
Eupliratesque,Tagusque, et opimo fiumine Ganges, 
Undas quisque suas volvens, cursuque sonoro 
In mare prorumpunt : lies magno acclinis in antro 
Excipit Oceanus, natorumque ordine longo 
Dona recognoscit venientum, ultroque serenat eo 



V. Maerob. S. Scipionis, i. p. 46. v. Gronovii Not. Apuleii 
Apolog. " Verticem hominis velat arcem et regiam.*' Coripp. 
de Laud. Justini. ii. 190. Claudiani Cons. Honor, iv. " Sum- 
ma capitis pendavit in arce.^' Sid. Apoll. v. 239, ** Arce 
cerebri." Prudent. Ham. 312, " Mediaque ex arce cerebri," 
and many other examples. Roscommon has the " Caverns of 
the Brain," on Poetry, v. 27, and see Sprat. Plague of Athens, 
Bt. 11. 

" Tum vapor ipsam. 

Corporis arcem flammis urit." Seneeae (Edip. 185. 

See also Shakespeare: ■ *' And his pure brain. 

Which some suppose the souVs frail dwelling-house.** 

K. John, act v. so. 7 
And see ver. 135 of this poem. 

V. 51. So Lucret. iii. 244: 

** Qua nee mobilius quidquam neque tenuius exstat." 
And Virg. Georg. i. 398: 

*' Tenuia nee lanse per coelum vellera ferri." 

V 51. " Rerum simulachra ferantur," Lucret. iv. 165. 
** Geminoque facis commercia mundo," Claud, xxxiii. 91. 

V. 59. " Te tuus Oceanus natali gurgite lassum Excipit," 
Claud, vii. 176. 

V 60. " Dona recognoscit populorum," Virg. Ma. viii. 721. 



208 gray's poems. 

Cjeruleam faciem, et diffuse marmore ridet. 
Haud aliter species properant se inferre novellas 
Certatim menti, atque aditus quino agmine com- 

plent. 
Primas tactus agit partes, primusqne minutae 
Laxat iter cajcum turbse, recipitque ruentem. <« 
Non idem huic modus est, qiii fratribus : amplius 

iUe 
Imperium affectat senior, penitusque meduUis, 
Visceribusque habitat totis, pellisque recentem 
Funditur in telam, et late per stamina vivit. 
Necdum etiam matris puer eluctatus ab alvo 7o 
IVIultiplices solvit tunicas, et vincula rupit ; 
Sopitus moUi somno, tepidoque liquore 
Circumfusus adbuc : tactus tamen aura lacessit 
Jamdudum levior sensus, animamque reclusit. 
Idque magis simul, ac solitum blandumque calo- 

rem 75 

Frigore mutavit coeli, quod verberat acri 
Impete inassuetos artus : turn saevior adstat 
Humanaeque comes vitse Dolor excipit ; ille 
Cunctantem frustra et tremulo multa ore queren- 

tem 
Corripit invadens, ferreisque amplectitur ulnis. so 



V. 61. " Diffuse lumine ridet," Lucret. iii. 22. 
V. 69. So Pope. Essay on Man, i. 217: 

" The spider's touch, so exquisitely fine. 
Feels at each thread, and lives along the line." 
V. 70. " Turn porro puer. — Nionbus ex alvo matris natura 
profudit," Lucret. v. 223. " Gum veteres ponunt tunicas," 
Ibid. iv. 56. 

Y. 80. " Cupidisque amplectitur ulnisy'* Ovid. Met. xi. 63. 



DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 209 

Turn species primum patefacta est Candida Lucis 
(Usque vices adeo Natura bonique, malique, 
Exsequat, justaque manu sua damna rependit) 
Turn primum, ignotosque bibunt nova lumina soles. 
Carmine quo, Dea, te dicam, gratissima coeli ss 
Progenies, ortumque tuum ; gemmantia rore 
Ut per prata levi lustras, et floribus halans 
Purpureum Veris gremium, scenamque virentem 
Pingis, et umbriferos coUes, et caerula regna ? 
Gratia te, Venerisque Lepos, et mille Colorum, 90 
Formarumque chorus sequitur, motusque decentes. 
At caput in visum Stygiis Nox atra tenebris 
Abdidit, horrendaeque simul Formidinis ora, 
Pervigilesque sestus Curarum, atque anxius Anger. 



V. 81. "Nam simul ao species patefacta est verna diei ! " 
Lucret. i. x. 

V. 84. " Editus ex utero ccbcus nova lumina sensit, 
Et stupet ignotum se meruisse diem.** 

Claud, xcix. 10. 

V. 85. " Dignissima coeli. 

Progenies." Achill. Statii, ii. 372, 

V. 86. Lueret. ii. 319, " Invitant herbas gemmantes rore 
recenti.'* Luke. 

V. 87. Virg. Georg. iy. 1Q9, <« Croceis halantes floribus 
horti." Luke. 

Y. 88. "Hie ver purpureum," Virg. Eclog. ix. 41. 

V. 89. " Umbriferum nemus," Lucret. vi. 703. "Cceruleo 
regno," Virg. Ciris. 483. 

V. 91. "Quove color'? decens 

Quo motus 1 " Hor. Od. iv. xiii. 17. 

V. 92. " Invisum hoc detrude caput sub Tartara," ^n. ix. 
476. " Stygiis tenebris," Georg. iii. 551. 

V. 93. " Subit horrida mentem formido** Sil. Ital. x. 544, 
Lucret. vi. 253. "Curarum fluetuat sestu," Virg. ^n. viii. 
19. xii. 335. 

V. 94. Lucret. iii. 1006, " Exest anxius anger." Luke. 



210 gray's poems. 

Undique laetitia florent mortalia corda, » 

Purus et arridet largis fulgoribus ^ther. 

Omnia nee tu ideo invalidae se pandere Menti 
(Quippe nimis teneros posset yis tanta diei 
Perturbare, et inexpertos confundere visus) 
Nee capere infantes animo's, neu cernere credas iw 
Tarn variam molem, et mirae spectacula lucis : 
Nescio qua tamen hsec oculos dulcedine paryos 
Splendida percussit novitas, traxitque sequentes ; 
Nonne videmus enim, latis inserta fenestris 
Sicubi se Phoebi dispergant aurea tela, los 

Sive lucernarum rutilus colluxerit ardor, 
Extemplo hue obverti aciem, quae fixa repertos 
Haurit inexpletum radios, fruiturque tuendo ? 

Altior huic vero sensu, majorque videtur 
Addita, Judicioque arete connexa potestas, uo 
Quod simul atque setas volventibus auxerit annis, 
Haec simul, assiduo depascens omnia visu, 
Perspiciet, vis quanta loci, quid polleat ordo, 
Juncturse quis honos, ut res accendere rebus 
Lumina conjurant inter se, et mutua fulgent, us 



V. 96. "Improviso vibratus ab ^tbere fulgor," Virg. .^In. 
viii. 524. 

V. 102. *' Nescio qua praeter solitum dulcedine Iseti,'* Virg 
Georg. i. 413. 

V. 104. " Plena per ingertas fundebat luna fenestras," Virg. 
Mn. iii. 152. 

V. 105. "Lucida tela diei," Lucret. i. 128. 

V. 108. " Expleri mentem nequit, ardescitque tuendo^'* Virg. 
Ma. 1. 713. 

V. 113. *' Tantum aeries, juncturaque pallet,*^ Horat. Art. 
Poet. 242. "Ita res accendent lumina rebus," Lucret. i, 1110. 



• DE PRUSTCIPIIS COGITANDI. 211 

Nec minor in geminis viget auribus insiia virtus, 
Nee tantum in curvis quae pervigil excubet antris 
Hinc atque hinc (ubi Vox tremefecerit ostia pulsu 
Aeriis invecta rotis) longeque recurset : 
Seilicet Eloquio haec sonitus, liaee fulminis alas, 
Et muleere dedit dictis et tollere corda, tai 

Verbaque metiri numeris, versuque iigare 
Repperit, et quicquid discant Libethrides undse, 
Calliope quoties, quoties Pater ipse canendi 
Evolvat liquidum carmen, calamove loquenti 125 
Inspiret dulces animas, digitisque figuret. 

At medias fauces, et linguae humentia templa 
Gustus habet, qua se insinuet jucunda saporum 
Luxuries, dona Autumni, Bacchique voluptas. 

Naribus interea consedit odora hominum vis, i3o 
Docta leves captare auras, Panchai'a quales 
Vere novo exhalat, Floraeve quod oscula fragrant, 



V. 115. On this use of the indicative, 'conjurant,' 'fulgent,' 
for the subjunctive mood, see Parr's Letter to Dr. Gabell, in the 
Class. Journ. Ixxix. Sept. 1829, p. 45, and Parr's Correspond, 
vol. i. p. 476. 

V. 119. " Puniceis invecta rotis,** Virg. ^n. xii. 77. 

V. 122. ''Nee numeris nectere verba juvat," Ovid. Pont. ii. 
30. 

V. 123. "Nymphse, noster amor, Libethrides," Virg. Ec- 
log. vii. 21. Pomp. Mela, ii. 3. 

V. 126. " Mobilibus digitis expergefacta Jigurap,t.** 

Lucret. ii. 412. 

V. 128. " Jucundus sapores," Tibull. i. vii. 35. 

V. 130. «' Odora canum via," Lucret. vi. 778. Virg. ^n. 
iv. 132. 

V. 132. Compare Par. Lost, b. v. 16 : «*Then with voice, 
mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes." Virg. Georg. i. 
43. " Vera novo gelidus canis cum montibus humor.** Luke, 



212 gray's poems. 

Roscida, cum Zephyri furtim sub vesperis hora 
Respondet votis, moliemque aspirat amorem. 

Tot portas altse capitis circumdedit arci i^ 
Alma Parens, sensusque vias per membra reclusit; 
Haud solas : namque iiltus agit vivata facultas, 
Qua sese explorat, contemplatusque repente 
Ipse suas animus vires, momentaque cernit. 
Quid velit, aut pcssit, cupiat, fugiatve, vicissim 
Percipit imperio gaudens ; neque corpora fallunt 
Morigera ad celeres actus, ac numina mentis. - 

Qualis Hamadryadum quondam si forte sororum 
Una, novos peragrans saltus, et devia rura ; 
(Atque illam in viridi suadet procumbere ripa 
Fontis pura quies, et opaci frigoris umbra) 
Dum prona in latices speculi de margine pendet, 
Mirata est subitam venienti occurrere Nympbam : 
Mox eosdem, quos ipsa, artus, eadem ora gerentem 
Una inferre gradus, una succedere sylvae iso 

Aspicit alludens ; seseque agnoscit in undis. 
Sic sensu interne rerum simulacra suarum 
Mens ciet, et proprios observat conscia vultus. 



V. 134. " Votis respondet avari," Georg. i. 47. " Divinum 
adspirat amorem," Virg. ^n. viii. 373. 

V. 137. " Vivata potestas," Lueret. iii. 410. 557. 680. 

V. 139. " Animus vario labefactus vulnere nutat 

HucJevis, atque illuc; momentaque sumit utroque." 

Ovid. Met. x. 375. 
V. 144. " Mater viridois saltus orbata peragrans.'* 

Lueret. ii. 355. Luke 
V. 147. " Lympharun; in speculo," Phasdrus, i. iv. 3. 
V. 149. The same synseresis is found in Propert. iv. vii. 7: 
*' Eosdem habuit seeum, quibus est elata capillos.*' 
And, " Eosdem oculos; lateri vestis adusta fuit." 



DE PRINCIPIIS COGITANDI. 213 

Nec vero simplex ratio, aut jus omnibus unum 
Constat imaginibus. Sunt quae bina ostia norunt ; 
Hae privos servant aditus ; sine legibus illae 
Passim, qua data porta, ruunt, animoque propin- 
quant. 157 

Respice, cui a cunis tristes extinxit ocellos, 
Saeva et in eternas mersit natura tenebras ; 
nii ignota dies lucet, vernusque colorum leo 

Offusus nitor est, et vivae gratia formae. 
Corporis at filum, et motus, spatiumque, locique 
Intervalla datur certo dignoscere tactu : [plex, 
Quandoquidem his iter ambiguum est, et janua du- 
Exclusaeque oculis species irrumpere tendunt i65 
Per digitos. Atqui solis concessa potestas 
Luminibus blandae est radios immittere lucis. 

Undique proporro sociis, quacunque patescit 
Notitiae campus, mistae lasciva feruntur 
Turba voluptatis comites, formaeque dolorum m 
Terribiles visu, et porta glomerantur in omni. 
Nec vario minus introitu magnum ingruit Illud, 
Quo facere et fungi, quo res existere circiim 
Quamque sibi proprio cum corpore scimus, et ire 



V. 154. "Nec ratio solis simplex,'^ Lucret. v. 613- "Con- 
stat imago,*' iv. 108. "Privas aures," iv. 570. 

V. 157. Virg. ^n. i. 83. " Qua data porta ruunt." 

Luke. 
V. 161. " Ea gratia formaa/' Ovid. Met. vii. 44. 

V. 167. " Radios inter quasi rumpere lucis," Lucret. v. 288. 
•« Radiis ardentem lucis," Virg. JEn. vii. 142. 

V. 171. "Terribiles visu formse," Mn. vi. 277. 

V. 173. " At facere, et fungi sine corpore nulla potestas." 

Lucret. i. 444. 



214 gray's poems. 

Ordine, perpetuoque per sevum flumine laLi. i7 

Nunc age quo valeat paeto, qua sensilis arte 
Affectare viam, atque animi tentare latebras 
Materies (dictis aufes adverte faventes) 
Exsequar. Imprimis spatii quam multa per 

sequor 
Millia multigenis pandant se corpora seclis, iso 
Expende. Haud unum invenies, quod mente li- 

cebit 
Amplecti, nedum proprius deprendere sensu, 
Molis egens certte, aut solido sine robore, cnjus 
Denique mobilitas linquit, texturave partes, 
UUa nee orarum circumc^sura coercet. las 

Haec conjuncta adeo tota compage fatetur 
Mundus, et extremo clamant in limine rerum, 
(Si rebus datur extreraum) primordia. Firmat 
Hjbc eadem tactus (tactum quis dicere falsum 
Audeat?) htec oculi nee lucidus arguit orbis. lao 

Inde potestatum enasci densissima proles: 
Nam quodcunque ferit visum, tangive laborat, 



V. 175. " Pcrpetuo possint oBri labentia tractu." 

Lucret. v. 1215. 
V. 177. " Viamque adfeetat Olyinpo," Georg. iv. 562. 
"Tentare latebras," Mn. ii. 38. 
V. 185. " Extima meinbroruai circumccEsura coercet.^'' 

Lucret. iv. 65' 

V. 189. " Solera quis dicere falsum 

Audeat." V"irg. (ieorg. i. 463 

V. 190. " At si tan tula pars oculi media ilia peresa est, 
Incolumis quaravis alioqui aplendidus orbis." 

Lucret. iii. 415 
V. 191. " Densior hinc soboles," Virg. Georg. iii. 308. 
V. 192. " Quae feriunt oculorum acies, visuraque lacessiint,*' 
Lucret. iv. 329. 



DE PRmCIPTTS COGITANDl. 215 

Quicquid nare bibis, vel concava concipit auris, 
Quicquid lingua sapit, credas hoc omne, necesse 

est 
Ponderibus, textu, discursu, mole, ligura m 

Particulas praestare leves, et semina rerum. 
Nunc oculos igitur pascunt, et luce ministra 
Fulgere cuncta vides, spargique coloribus orbem, 
Dum de sole trahunt alias, aliasque superne 
Detorquenf, retroque docent se vertere iiammas. 



V. 193. " Nare bibis." Is this expression warranted by the 
authority of any of the Latin pools'? Horace has " Bibit aure," 
3d. ii. xiii. 32 ; and Statins, in Ach. ii. 120, " Aure bibentem." 
" Naso videt," Plautius. See Martini. Var. Lect. p. 10. Shake- 
speare transfers the same word to night: " And with mine eyes 
I'll drink the words you send," Gymbel. act i. sc. 2. And 
Thomson. Spring, 106 : " Or taste, the s/fi.ell of dairy." « Eiap- 
susque cavd fingitur aure lapis," Ov. Art. Am. i. 432. 

V. 196. •■' Multorum semina rerum," Lucret. ii. 676. Luke. 

V. 197. " Oculos qui pascere possunt," Lucret. ii. 419. 

Luke. 
" Consulit ardentes radios, et luce magistra.^' 

Claud. Cons. Honor, vi. 7. 

V. 198. " Grammatici veteres notavcrunt ^ Virgilio et anti- 
quioribus poetis, vtrulrrr. in tertia conjugatione cum aliis \^erbis, 
nt fervere, ful sere nBse usitatuvn; k Lucano auteni, et Statio, 
et ejus a^tatis poetis in secuuda." Vide Priscian. CoL 837. 
866. S93. Dousam. ad Ijucil. lib. ix. p. li;). N. Marccll. 
voce "fulgere," ed. Mercer. Gmipp. Laud. Justini, iii. 257. 
Virg. Georg. iv. 262. .^n. iv. GS'J. vii. 334. xii. 691. Lucan. 
ii. 2.50. vi. 179. ed. Oudendorp. Gesner, in a note to Clandian 
do Cons. Stilich. iii. 142, " Siculas obsident urbes,"says, " Ob- 
si^hre tertia conjugatione, nee optimos refugisse docent The- 
sauri nostri." It was on the avrtboi'ity of the u?e of these 
verbs in the third conjugation, that Vossius, in his treatise " De 
Arte Grammatica," (lib. ii. p. 90), attempted to defend respon- 
dere in the well-known passage of Manilius, lib. v. 753, and 
that Scaliger and Bronkhusius read " Jam eanis aetas mea 
canaret annis." v. Propert. El. ii. 14. 7. 

V. 200. " Faciunt ignem ae vertere in auras." 

Lucret. i. 783. 



216 GRAY'S POEMS. 

Nunc trepido inter se fervent corpuscula pulsu, 
Ut tremor sethera per magnum, lateque natantes 
Aurarum fluctus, avidi vibrantia claustra 
Auditus queat allabi, sonitumque propaget. 
Cominus interdum non uUo interprete per se aoe 
Nervorum invadunt teneras quatientia fibras, 
Sensiferumque urgent ultro per viscera motum. 



LIBER QUARTUS. 

Hactenus liaud segnis Naturae arcana retexi 
Musarum interpres, primusque Britanna per arva 
Romano liquidum deduxi flumine rivum. 
Cum Tu opere in medio, spes tanti et causa labo- 

ris, 
Linquis, et geternam fati te condis in umbram! 
Vidi egomet duro graviter concussa dolore 
Pectora, in alterius non unquam lenta dolorem ; 



V. 207. " Sensiferos motus quae dedit prima per artus," Lu- 
cret. ii. 246, and iii. 937. *' Longe ab sensiferis primordia 
motibus errant." 

V. 2. See Lucret. i. 95; iv. 5. And Columella de Cult. 
Hort. 435: 

" Qui primus veteres ausus recludere fontes, 
Ascreeum eecinit Romana per oppida carmen." 
Virg. Georg. ii. 175. And iii. 12: 

" Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas." 
And see note to Ennius, ed. Hesselii. p. 10. 

V. 8. " Languescent luraina morte," Catull. Ixiv. 188 
" Vultus amatos," Ov. Fast. vi. 579. 



LIBER QUARTUS. 217 

Et languere oculos vidi, et pallescere amantem 
Vultum, quo nunquam Pietas nisi rara, Fidesque, 
Altus amor Veri, et purum spirabat Honestum. lo 
Visa tamen tardi demiim inclementia morbi 
Cessare est, reducemque iterum roseo ore Salutem 
Speravi, atque unk tecum, dilecte Favoni ! 
Credulus heu longos, ut quondam, fallere Soles : 
Heu spes nequicquam dulces, atque irrita vota! 
Heu maestos Soles, sine te quos ducere flendo is 
Per desideria, et questus jam cogor inanes ! 

At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctiis, 
Stellanti templo, sincerique aetheris igne, 
Unde orta es, fruere ; atque 6 si secura, nee ultra 
Mortalis, notos olim miserata labores 21 

Respectes, tenuesque vacet cognoscere curas ; 
Humanam si forte alta de sede procellam 
Contemplere, metus, stimulosque cupidinis acres, 
Gaudiaque et gemitus, parvoque in corde tumultum 
Irarum ingentem, et saevos sub pectore fluctus ; 

V. 9. " Ineorrupta^rfes, nudaque Veritas.** 

Hor. Od. i. xxiv. 7. 
V. 11. " Rapit inclementia mortis,'* Virg. Georg. iii. 68. 

I/uke. 
V. 14. " Tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles.'* 

Pers. Sat. v. 41. Virg. Eclog. ix. 51. 
V. 17. " Questus ad nubila rumpit inanes," Claud, xxxv. 
249. " Questu volvebat inani," Ciris. v. 401. 

V. 18. " Sancta ad vos anima,'* Virg. Mn. xii. 648. 
" Opisque baud indiga nostra3," Georg. ii. 428. 
V. 21. " Oh ! sola infandos Trojae miserata labores ! " ^n. 
i.^597. " Tenuisque piget cognoscere ouras," Georg. i. 177, 

V. 21. " Si quid pietas antiqua labores 

Respicit humanos." ^n. v. 688. 

V. 24. ** Et stimulos acres sub pectore vertit," Ma. ix. 718. 

P 



218 gray's poems. 

Respice et has lacrymas, memori quas ictus araore 
Fundo ; quod possum, juxta lugere sepulchrum 

Dum juvat, et mutae vana haec jactare favillae. 29 

an ^ * 4ii * * 



GREEK EPIGRAM. 
[See Mason's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 46.] 

A0fievoc Tzo7J)d7]pov eKTjfiolov aXco^ avaoaag, 
Tag decvdg TSfuvr] '/lelire Kvvaye ■&edg, 

Movvoi ap' evOa avvuv C,adeuv KXayyevctv v?My/wtj 
'Avraxslg Nv(i^v dypoTepdv aeMdcp. 



V. 29 *• Taliaque illaorymans mutae jace verba favillcB.** 

Propert. Eleg. ii. i. 77. 




219 



EXTRACTS. 



PETRARCA PART I. SONETTO 170. 
** Lasso ch* i' ardo, ed altri non mel crede; '* &o 

IMITATED.* 

CJror, io ; veros at nemo credidit ignes : 

Quin credunt omnes ; dura sed ilia negat, 
Ilia negat, soli volumus cui posse probare ; 

Quin videt, et visos improba dissimulat. i 

Ah, durissima mi, sed et, ah, pulcherrima rerum ! 

Nonne animam in misera, Cynthia, fronte vides ? 
Cmnibus ilia pia est ; et, si non fata vetassent, 

Tam longas mentem flecteret ad lacrjmas. 
Sed tamen has lacrymas, hunc tu, quern spre- 
veris, ignem, 

Carminaque auctori non bene culta suo, lo 

Turba futurorum non ignorabit amantum : 

Nos duo, cumque erimus parvus uterque cinis, 
Jamque faces, eheu ! oculorum, et frigida lingua, 

Hae sine luce jacent, immemor ilia loqui ; 
Infelix musa geternos spirabit amores, is 

Ardebitque um^ multa favilla mea. 



* Great judgment is evinced in the imitation of this sonnet 
in elegiac Propertian verse ; and the substitution of the name 
*of Cynthia, for the Laura of Petrarch, gives it an air of 
originality in the Latin language, and marks that propriety 
which distinguishes every composition of Mr. Gray. Mason, 



220 gkay's poems. 



Mb. Gray paid very particular attention to the Antfaologia 
Graeca, and he enriched an interleaved edition of it (by Henry 
Stephens in 1566) with copious notes, with parallel passages 
from various authors, and with some conjectural emendations 
of the text. He translated, or imitated, a few of the epigrams; 
and as the editor thinks that the reader may not be displeased 
with the terse, elegant, and animated manner in which Mr. 
Gray transfused their spirit into the Latin language, he ia 
presented with a specimen. 



FROM THE ANTHOLOGIA GR^CA. 

EDIT. HEN. STEPH. 1566. 



IN EACCHJB PUaENTIS 8TATUAM.* 

Credite, non viva est Maenas ; non spirat imago ; 
Artificis rabiem miscuit asre manus. 



IN ALEXANDRUM, ^RE EFFICTUM.2 

Quantum audet, Lysippe, manus tua ! surgit in 
asre 

Spiritus, atque oculis bellicus ignis adest : 
Spectate hos vultus, miserisque ignoscite Persis : 

Quid mirum, imbelles si leo sparsit oves ? 



IN MEDEJE IMAGINEM, NOBILE TIMOMACHI 0PUS.8 

En ubi Medese varius dolor aestuat ore, 

Jamque animum nati, jamque maritus, habentl. 

1 Anthol. p. 296. 2 lb. p. 314. » lb. p. 317. 



EXTRACTS. 221 

Succenset, miseret, medio exardescit amore, 
Dum furor inque oculo gutta minante tremit. 

Cemis adhuc dubiam; quid enim? licet impia 
matris 
Colchidos, at non sit dextera Timomachi. 



IN NIOBES STATX7AM.4 



Fecerat e vivd lapidem me Jupiter ; at me 
Praxiteles vivam reddidit e lapide. 



A NYMPH CITEBINQ A STATXTE OF HEBSELF TO TENUS. 

Te tibi, saricta, fero nudam ; formosius ipsa 
Cum tibi, quod ferrem, te, Dea, nil habui. 



IN AMOREM DORMIENTEM.* 

DoCTE puer vigiles mortalibus addere curas, 
Anne potest in te somnus habere locum ? 

Laxi juxta arcus, et fax suspensa quiescit, 

Dormit et in pbaretra clausa sagitta sua ; 

Longe mater abest ; longe Cytherei'a turba . 
Verum ausint alii te prope ferre pedem, 

Non ego : nam metui valde, mihi, perfide, quiddam 
Forsan et in somnis ne meditere mali. 



* Anthol. p. 315. 

' lb. p. 332. Catullianam illam spirat mollitiem. Gray* 



222 gray's poems. 



FROM k FRAGMENT* OF PLATO.^ 

Itur in Idalios tractus, felicia regna, 

Fundit ubi densam myrtea sylva comam, 
Intus Amor teneram visus spirare quietem, 

Dum roseo roseos imprimit ore toros ; 
Sublimem procul a ramis pendere pharetram, 

Et de languidula spicula laps a manu, 
Vidimus, et risu molli diducta labella 

Murmure qusa assiduo pervolitabat apis. 



IN FONTEM AQ.VM CATjIDMJ 

Sub platanis puer Idalius prope fluminis undam 

Dormiit, in ripa deposuitque facem. 
Tempus adest, sociae, Nymph arum audentior una 

Tempus adest, ultra quid dubitamus ? ait. 
Hicet incurrit, pestem ut divumque hominumque 

Lampada collectis exanimaret aquis : 
Demens ! nam nequiit saevam restinguere flam- 
mam 

Nympha, sed ipsa ignes traxit, et inde calet. 

Irrepsisse suas murem videt Argus in sedes, 
Atque ait, heus, a me nunquid, amice, velis? 
nie autem ridens, metuas nihil, inquit ; apud te, 
O bone, non epulas, hospitium petimus. 

* *« Elegantissimum hercle fragmentum, quod sic Latind 
nostro modo adumbravimus." Gray. 
^ The second of the name. Anthol. p. 332. 
» Anthol. p. 364. ^ jb. p. 18G. 



EXTRACTS. 223 

® Hanc tibi Rufinus mittit, Rodoclea, coronam, 
Has tibi decerpens texerat ipse rosas ; 

Est viola, est anemone, est suave-rubens hyacyn- 
thus, 
Mistaque Narcisso lutea caltha suo : 

Sume ; sed aspiciens, ah, fidere desine formae ; 
Qui pinxit, brevis est, sertaque teque, color. 



AD AMORBM.IO 
/ 

Paulisper vigiles, oro, compesce dolores, 

Respue nee musas supplicis aure preces ; 
Oro brevem lacrymis veniam, requiemque furori 

Ah, ego non possum vulnera tanta pati ! 
Intima flamma, vides, miseros depascitur artus, 

Surgit et extremis spiritus in labiis : 
Quod si tam tenuem cordi est exsolvere vitam, 

Stabit in opprobrium sculpta querela tuum. 
Juro perque faces istas, arcumque sonantem, 

Spiculaque hoc unum figere docta jecur ; 
Heu fuge crudelem puerum, ssevasque sagittas ! 

Huic fuit exitii causa, viator, Amor. 



9 Anthol. p. 474. lo jb. p. 452. 

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